Domestic stalwart Amol Muzumdar appointed Mumbai Ranji Team coach

Domestic stalwart Amol Muzumdar appointed Mumbai Ranji Trophy coach

Mumbai, June 1: Domestic stalwart and former Mumbai captain Amol Muzumdar has been appointed as the coach of the senior Mumbai Ranji Trophy team for the upcoming domestic season replacing Ramesh Powar, who has taken charge of the Indian women's team.

The decision to appoint Muzumdar was taken by the Cricket Improvement Committee of the MCA comprising Jatin Paranjape (chairman), Nilesh Kulkarni and Vinod Kambli.

The CIC zeroed in on the 46-year-old after interviewing eight other candidates, which included Balwinder Singh Sandhu, Wasim Jaffer, Sairaj Bahutule, Sulakshan Kulkarni, Pradeep Sunderram, Nandan Phadnis, Umesh Patwal and Vinod Raghvan.

Only four months back, Muzumdar was pipped by former India off-spinner Powar for the post of Mumbai coach. Powar guided Mumbai to the Vijay Hazare Trophy last season but only to vacate it after getting the India appointment.

A Mumbai stalwart, Muzumdar scored 11,167 runs in 171 first-class matches between 1993 and 2013. A well-known commentator post-retirement, he has been a batting coach with the NCA, IPL team Rajasthan Royals and was also South Africa's interim batting coach for the 2019-20 series against India.

Bahutule, who played two Tests and eight ODIs for India, is a domestic stalwart, having played 188 first-class games, in which he picked staggering 630 wickets. He has coached Vidarbha, Kerala, Bengal and has been Gujarat's coach for the past two seasons.

Kulkarni was Mumbai coach when it had won Ranji Trophy in the 2012-13 season. He has also coached Vidarbha and Chhattisgarh. Last season, Mumbai had initially appointed Amit Pagnis as the coach for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, but after its disastrous show, Pagnis then stepped down.