Badani named Delhi Capitals head coach; Rao replaces Ganguly as men’s Director of Cricket

Hemang Badani was earlier involved with Sunrisers Hyderabad as a fielding and batting coach.
| Photo Credit: Nagara Gopal

A spate of developments took place at Delhi Capitals on Thursday as Hemang Badani was confirmed as the new head coach of the men’s team while Venugopal Rao was appointed as the Director of Cricket.

Badani, who played for India from 2000 to 2004, takes charge after former Australia captain Ricky Ponting parted ways with the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise in July following seven seasons as head coach. Badani, 47, was earlier involved with Sunrisers Hyderabad as a fielding and batting coach.

Rao, meanwhile, takes over a role performed by Sourav Ganguly in recent years. But the appointment comes with a degree of complexity — with Delhi Capitals co-owned by GMR Group and JSW Sports, the two entities have come to an understanding that the running of cricket operations of the men’s and women’s teams will be distributed between them on a two-year rotational basis. For the next two seasons, the men’s outfit will be handled by GMR while JSW will oversee the women’s team. With JSW Sports also announcing Ganguly as Director of Cricket for all its operations on Thursday, it means that the former India captain will be with the women’s team in 2025 and 2026 before reuniting with the men.

Both Badani and Rao have been part of the larger Capitals set-up in overseas franchise leagues. In January, Badani was the head coach at Dubai Capitals when it finished runner-up in the ILT20. Rao, who played 16 ODIs for India in 2005 and 2006, was associated with Dubai Capitals as mentor in 2023 before becoming Director of Cricket this year.

The upheaval at the franchise is perhaps a result of its disappointing performances in particularly the last two seasons. It finished second from bottom in 2023 before a marginal improvement to sixth this year. It is one of only three franchises, along with Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings, to never win the men’s IPL.