The recent discussion in the Delhi Capitals camp before the mega auction of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 was whether their captain and wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant will be retained by the franchise for the new and upcoming season of the tournament.
But, in between all of these speculations, the franchise has parted ways with their entire backroom staff and the former captain of the Indian side, Sourav Ganguly, from the 2025 season onwards. The former Indian player Venugopal Rao will replace Ganguly as the new Director for the Delhi Capitals.
Sourav will now handle the responsibility of the SA20 side and remain the Director of the women’s cricket for the team. This time, he will serve for the Pretoria Capitals and the Delhi Capitals Women. This change is primarily due to the association of the former left-handed batter with the JSW group, which will get back control of the side in 2027.
The GMR group, which is owned by Kiran Kumar Gandhi, takes charge of the team for the next two years. Venugopal and Hemang Badani will be in charge from now on.
“Sourav Ganguly will no longer be participating in working and functioning of the Delhi Capitals in the IPL. You can say he will be the Women’s Director of Crocket and will mostly be overseeing the Women’s Premier League team and the Pretoria Capitals in SA20.” The source who tracked all these developments expressed.
The former BCCI President was keen to take the role of the head coach and the Director of the side, but will not be associated with the men’s cricket in any capacity.
Delhi Capitals makes huge changes in the coaching set-up
So, the question stands if he would be part of the upcoming meg auction for the Delhi Capitals before the 2025 edition of the tournament. It will possibly be a yes, as the agreement between the two groups regarding the auction and the key retention will be made jointly by the partners.
“Key decisions like auctions, captaincy, player releases, and retentions for both teams will be made by the Delhi Capitals’ board, with mutual agreement between the senior leadership of both groups.” The joint release stated.
Ganguly, who has been part of the JSW group, will attend the auction alongside Parth Jindal, the head of the company. The GMR group is avoiding discussions on Pant, who is currently playing the first Test in Bengaluru against New Zealand.
“GMR Group and JSW Group, on Thursday, announced that it would be distributing the running of cricketing operations of the Delhi Capitals IPL (Men) and the Delhi Capitals WPL (Women) teams between the two ownership groups on a two-year rotational basis.” The groups said in a statement.
“The understanding will see GMR Group drive cricketing operations of the Delhi Capitals Men’s team for the next two years, during which JSW Sports will steer operations of the Delhi Capitals Women’s team. The roles will switch when JSW Sports takes over the running of the Men’s team in 2027. The business operations of the franchise, however, will continue to be run by the Delhi Capitals’ management team.” The statement continued.
In all likelihood, the franchise is expected to retain Pant as their first player, besides going for the all-rounder Axar Patel for the second option, followed by Kuldeep Yadav as the third. They will aim to use the RTM cards for Jack Fraser McGurk and Tristian Stubbs.