CUTTACK 24-May-2007 71
Orissa Cricket Association (OCA) has appointed former Ranji all-rounder Ramanathalingam Srikant as the chief coach of the State junior teams. He will be in-charge of the State under-15, under-17 and under-19 teams for the season 2007-08.
Besides the chief coach, four other coaches, a physio and several trainers have been appointed for the ensuing season. According to OCA secretary Asirbad Behera, Khirod Behera, Sushil Mishra and Suresh Kumar will assist Srikant as coach of State under-15, under-17 and under-19 teams respectively.
Khirod Behera retained his post for helping Orissa win the East zone under-15 title after a gap of seven years. Former Orissa Ranji captain Sourajit Mohapatra also retained his post as the bowling coach. The contract of trainers Pravat Mohapatra, Dilip Sahu and Mahesh Malla has also been renewed for another season. Apart from them, Lokanath Panigrahi has been roped in as the first yoga trainer of the State teams.
C Shivshankar of Tamil Nadu has been named as the overall physio-cum-trainer. Recently, he was at Cuttack for the conduct of a month-long coaching camp for the under-15 batch of BCCI’s East Zone Cricket Academy.
The decision to appoint coaches for the Ranji Trophy and under-22 teams will be taken by the end of the month, the OCA secretary said. ‘‘We are also planning to appoint a trainer for the women team,’’ he added. But the OCA secretary did not reveal the fees to be paid to the support staff. ‘‘They will be getting at least Rs 5,000 more than what they received last year,’’ he indicated.
Srikant, a BCCI Grade-III coach, replaced Maharashtra’s Pradeep Ingle, who held the post for the past four years. An employee of Steel Authority of India Limited, 35-year-old Srikant is currently serving at Bangalore. He assisted State age-group teams for the past four years.
A right-hand batsman and a medium pace bowler, Srikant played just two first class matches for Orissa during 1993-95. He scored 32 runs in four innings but failed to take any wicket.
