Bhubaneswar: Former Indian cricketer Shiv Sunder Das took over as coach of the Odisha Ranji Cricket team today replacing another former Odia international cricketer Debashis Mohanty.
Mohanty, a medium-fast bowler, had earlier expressed his unwillingness to continue citing personal reasons. He had not even accompanied the Odisha team for two matches. On the other hand, rumours are also doing the rounds that Mohanty had some differences with a few senior players of the team.
The ex-cricketer had taken charge as coach of Odisha Ranji Cricket team in January, 2011 replacing Australian cricketer Michael Bevan.
Newly-appointed Das represented India in 23 Test matches and scored 1,326 runs at an average of 38.91. Das was selected for the 2002 tour of West Indies but after failing to get a big score during the tour, he was dropped from the Test squad in the subsequent tour of England; and has not played for India since.
Besides, Suresh Kumar, Kulamani Parida and Subrat Behera have been appointed coaches of U-23, U-19 and U-16 Odisha Men’s Cricket teams, respectively. Similarly, Rashmita Mohanty has been selected as the coach for Women Senior and U-23 team and Itishree Pattnaik as the coach of Women U-19 team, said an official of the Odisha Cricket Association (OCA).
This apart, Bishnudev Mohanty took over as the chairman of the selection committee for Ranji and U-22 teams while Deepak Mangaraj will serve as the chairman of the committee for Junior U-19 and U-16 teams. Bidhan Chandra Rout has been appointed as the chairman of women’s selection committee, OCA sources added.