Coach Sameer Dighe up for a challenge
In recent years, Team Mumbai has been inconsistent yet has won the tournament every alternate year.
Coaching the Mumbai Ranji team hasn’t been an easy job over the years as the predecessors have set high standards. Mumbai (formerly Bombay) has won the tournament maximum with 41 wins, including 15 back-to-back wins from 1958–59 to 1972–73. They have been in the final 46 of the total 83 times thus far.
In recent years, Team Mumbai has been inconsistent yet has won the tournament every alternate year. Whenever they have lost in the past decade, it has cost coaches like Pravin Amre, Sulakshan Kulkarni and recently Chandrakant Pandit their jobs.
For the 2017-18 domestic season, former Mumbai and India wicket-keeper Sameer Dighe has been appointed as the Mumbai coach. This was after the sweeping changes in the Mumbai set-up that saw Ajit Agarkar replacing Milind Rege as chairman of selectors. The Mumbai Cricket Association’s Cricket Improvement Committee (CIC) picked Dighe over Pandit and Amre.
Dighe is aware of the challenges ahead, and he seems ready to lead. “It is a great opportunity for me. I am looking forward to this challenging job,” he says.
Dighe, who played six Tests and 23 ODIs, had a first-class career that spanned 11 years, during which he led Mumbai to the Ranji Trophy title in 1999-2000. Following his retirement in 2001-02, Dighe took up coaching assignments and worked with Mumbai Indians as fielding coach.
Apart from a stint in Hong Kong, and Tripura’s Ranji Trophy, he has served as a batting coach and coached the India A and the India Blues team. He has also briefly served as Mumbai selector.