BCCI likely to remove assistant coach Abhishek Nayar; support staff set for overhaul
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New Delhi (PTI): Just eight months into the biggest assignment of his career, it could be curtains for Mumbai stalwart Abhishek Nayar as the Indian cricket team's assistant coach amid speculation that he has fallen out with a high-profile member of the support staff.
If board sources are to be believed, Nayar has already been intimated of the BCCI's decision to part ways with him.
Fielding coach T Dilip, and Strength and Conditioning coach Soham Desai are also on their way out after completing more than three years in their respective positions.
The new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) of the BCCI has capped the support staff's tenure at three years.
It is learnt that India's first ever Strength and Conditioning coach Adrian Le Roux is likely to return for a second stint. The South African is widely credited for ushering in a new fitness culture in the then Sourav Ganguly-led Indian team during the 2003 World Cup.
When BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia was contacted by the PTI, he neither confirmed nor denied the development.
"Certain things are being finalised. You will receive a press note from BCCI in some days," Saikia said asked about the swirling speculation.
The 41-year-old Nayar, a former all-rounder who played three ODIs but was largely a domestic stalwart with 103 first-class games, didn't respond to a text message sent by PTI.
His presence deemed "counter-productive"
It is learnt that Nayar's removal was on cards after Sitanshu Kotak was added to the Indian team's support staff as an additional batting coach.
"...just after the tour of Australia, there was a review meeting conducted by the BCCI. The top officials of the board, including secretary Devajit Saikia and vice-president Rajeev Shukla, were present along with important members associated with the Indian team, and the national selectors," a senior BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
"On the sidelines of the meeting, a powerful member of the support staff expressed his apprehensions about Nayar's presence and said how him being in the dressing room is proving to be counter-productive.
"While the BCCI didn't act immediately but they brought in Kotak, the former Saurashtra run-accumulator. It was a way of side-lining Nayar during the Champions Trophy," the source added.
It is understood that Nayar was never the first-choice assistant for head coach Gautam Gambhir when the appointments were finalised. The 41-year-old Nayar was appointed as he was seen as someone who could act as a bridge between Gambhir and skipper Rohit Sharma.
Nayar and Dilip have been the Indian skipper's "most trusted lieutenants" and it is not known whether Rohit was kept in the loop by the BCCI mandarins about these decisions.
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Indigo flights chaos: SCR to run special trains to clear passenger rush
Hyderabad (PTI): The South Central Railway on Saturday announced that it would run four special trains to manage the surge in passengers resulting from the large-scale cancellation of IndiGo flights here.
The move comes as flyers face significant disruption and long queues at the airport due to the cancellation.
A press release from the SCR said it is running the special trains to clear the extra rush of passengers to Chennai, Mumbai and Shalimar (Kolkata) from Hyderabad today.
Meanwhile, as many as 43 outbound Indigo flights were cancelled from here on Saturday, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport sources said.
ALSO READ: IndiGo cancels over 200 flights from Delhi, Mumbai on Saturday
Similarly, 26 incoming flights are also likely to be cancelled during the day, they said.
The flight cancellations drew ire from passengers, who thronged the IndiGo counters at the airport demanding to know the exact situation.
“This is utter nonsense! Digiyatra done, message received that departure has been rescheduled ahead of the scheduled departure and now upon arriving at Hyderabad airport coming to know at the security checkpoint that Indigo flight is cancelled,” Tarun Singha, former Ministry of Defence spokesperson said in a post on X.
“But the thing is if you don’t shout they do nothing. Example at Hyderabad Airport, there was no staff no flight information for an hour. Then a fellow passenger started shouting on mic and an Indigo staff appeared finally,” a netizen said in a post.
On Friday, when IndiGo cancelled over 1,000 flights from across airports, its CEO Pieter Elbers apologised in a video message for the major inconvenience caused to passengers due to the disruptions.
In the one-way video communication, Elbers also said that the airline was expecting fewer than 1,000 flights on Saturday.
