 "The Indian men's support staff has witnessed multiple exits since Gautam Gambhir took over as head coach last July. Image credit: BCCI")
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) reportedly made another change to support staff of the Indian men’s cricket team on Friday, with masseur Rajeev Kumar parting ways with the Men in Blue after 15 years in the role. Rajeev thus becomes the latest member of the Indian support staff to be shown the door this year, with the decision from the BCCI coming less than a month before the Asia Cup.
“The Indian board has decided to discontinue with Rajeev’s services. The Indian team had already appointed a masseur, which was recommended by team management before,” a BCCI source told The Indian Express.
Another member of the support staff parts ways with Team India
Having spent more than a decade with the Indian team, Rajeev was quite the popular figure in the Indian dressing room, and was the go-to person for players, especially fast bowlers, for providing relief to aching muscles after undergoing the rigours of a game.
Rajeev was also a regular sight at the sidelines of the ground, helping players out with fetching the ball after it went for a boundary in order to keep them fresh and help maintain over-rates. He was part of the backroom staff during the tour of England that concluded earlier this month, but will not be continuing any further.
Team India had earlier removed assistant coach Abhishek Nayar, team masseur Arun Kanade, strength and conditioning coach Soham Desai and fielding coach T Dilip in April this year. The board, however, did a U-turn with Dilip and handed him a one-year extension to his contract which had expired in May.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsNayar had followed Gambhir to the Indian team from the Kolkata Knight Riders, where he had also served as assistant coach with the latter as the mentor.
Desai and Dilip, meanwhile, had been around for a number of years with the latter being an integral member of the support staff during Rahul Dravid’s tenure as head coach from November 2021 to June 2024.
With Desai gone, Team India brought Adrian le Roux back as their S&C coach, with the South African having previously worked with the Indian team in 2002-03 when then-captain Sourav Ganguly and hea coach John Wright were in charge.