New Delhi, Aug 18 (IANS): In what have come as rare positions, the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) has appointed former India pace bowler Manoj Prabhakar as bowling coach and former Delhi player Rajat Bhatia as fielding coach for the state's men and women teams across all age groups.
The job of the duo entails attending camps and gauging the upcoming players while keeping tabs on the talent.
"My task will be to attend the pre-season camps that DDCA hosts, oversee the practice sessions and also attend the matches that are played in Delhi," said the former India seam bowler to IANS.
"Whatever the talent is there, I will pick that and report them to the coaches in charge of the respective age groups," added Prabhakar.
DDCA joint secretary Rajan Manchanda said, "He has been made coach just to ensure he checks all the upcoming talent and keep a tab on them."
While this is the first time that such specialist positions have been announced, a similar task was given to renowned coach Tarak Sinha about two decades back.
Sinha was appointed advisor to all age groups but not for any specialist field.
"It is a very good step. Prabhakar's ability should be used to guide the youngsters. As a bowler, he was incomparable. He should be made to coach teams, especially the junior ones as the youngsters can learn a lot from him," Sinha told IANS.
The appointed officials for the season:
Senior Women's Selection Committee
Jaya Sharma (chairperson), Asha Rawat, Renuka Dua.
Junior Women's Selection Committee
Amita Sharma (chairperson), Deepti Dhyani, Vandana Gupta.
Senior Men's Selection Committee
Ashu Dani (chairman), Chetnya Nanda, Rajeev Vinayak.
Junior Men's Selection Committee
Mohan Chaturvedi (chairman), Pradeep Chawla, Rajinder Singh Chawla.
Senior Men's Team Coaches
Rajkumar Sharma (chief coach), Gursharan Singh (batting coach), Parvinder Awana (bowling coach).
Under-23 Men's Team Coaches
Bantu Singh (chief coach), Hitesh Sharma (batting coach), V. Arvind (bowling coach).
Under-19 Men's Team Coaches
Ajay Sharma (chief coach), Sumeet Dogra (batting coach), Shankar Saini (bowling coach).
Under-16 Men's Team Coaches
Vijay Bahadur (chief coach), Narender Negi (batting coach), Abhinav Bali (bowling coach).
Under-14 Men's Team Coaches
Mahesh Sharma (chief coach), Chetan Sharma (batting coach), Kartar Nath (bowling coach).
Sr. Women's Team Coaches
Suman Sharma (chief coach), Khyati Gulani (fielding coach), Ragini Malhotra (batting coach).
Women's Under-23 Team Coaches
Neeru (chief coach), Neha Tanwar (batting coach), Rishit Saini (bowling coach).
Women's Under-19 Team Coaches
Latika Kumari (chief coach), Mandeep Kaur (batting coach), Kuldeep Rawat (bowling coach).
State coaches
(across all age groups, for men and women)
Bowling Coach
Manoj Prabhakar
High Performance Fitness Director
Rajat Bhatia