Morne Morkel appointed India's new bowling coach, to take charge from Bangladesh series
New Delhi, Aug 14: Former South Africa pace great Morne Morkel has been roped in as the Indian cricket team's new bowling coach, BCCI secretary Jay Shah told PTI on Wednesday, completing the appointment of new head coach Gautam Gambhir's preferred support staff.
It is understood that the 39-year-old, who replaces Paras Mhambrey, will take over as the bowling coach from the Bangladesh series that starts with the opening Test in Chennai from September 19. He has been appointed till the end of the 2027 ODI World Cup in South Africa.
"Yes, Morne Morkel has been appointed bowling coach of the senior India men's team," Shah told PTI.
The other members of Gambhir's support staff are assistant coach Abhishek Nayar, and fielding coach Ryan Ten Doeschate.
Morkel was also Gambhir's preferred choice, having worked with him at Lucknow Super Giants during the Indian's two IPL seasons as mentor of the franchise.
Morkel has played 86 Tests, 117 ODIs and 44 T20Is for South Africa with a total of 544 international wickets.
He will be reporting in Bengaluru's National Cricket Academy at the start of next month and is expected to watch the Duleep Trophy games. Once there, he will also touch base with VVS Laxman and head of bowling in NCA, Troy Cooley.
According to sources, Morkel was directly appointed on Gambhir's recommendation ahead of other options like Lakshmipathy Balaji and R Vinay Kumar.
"The Cricket Advisory Committee's (CAC) mandate was to interview the candidates for the head coach. When it came to choice of support staff, it was imperative that Gambhir's choice prevailed. He has worked with Morne and thinks of him highly as a bowling coach," a BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
"Also with the big series against Australia coming up Down Under from last week of November, there isn't a better choice than the South African, who has himself enjoyed fair bit of success over there. Also there will be the five-Test tour of England next year with a potential sixth match if India reach WTC final."
It is understood that Balaji and Vinay's names weren't considered once it was clear that Morkel would carry forward the good work done by Mhambrey.
One half of the famous fast bowling duo that featured Dale Steyn, Morkel is a cricketing heavyweight and has also played quite a lot in India to have a fair idea about the conditions.
Also, his stint in the IPL has allowed him to have a ringside view of India's next crop of fast bowlers including the most exciting of them all -- Mayank Yadav, Avesh Khan and Yash Thakur to name a few.
A lot of observers believe that Morkel worked quite a lot with Mayank during the past two seasons of IPL even though he remained injured for the better part.
Morkel's biggest challenge will be to handle the transition phase as Mohammed Shami enters the business end of his illustrious career and Jasprit Bumrah needs more potent support apart from Mohammed Siraj, especially in red-ball cricket.
Morkel had last year worked with the Pakistan team till the end of the ODI World Cup and quit before his contract expired.
India have never had any spin bowling coach as such although former director Ravi Shastri was a distinguished left-arm spinner in his playing days. Sairaj Bahutule, who is a part of Laxman's team at the NCA, has traveled on and off with the senior team.
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Doctors who died on duty during COVID-19 entitled to insurance under PMGKY: SC
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New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court held on Thursday that the families of the doctors who died while doing their duties during the COVID-19 pandemic are entitled to an insurance coverage of Rs 50 lakh under the "Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana".
A bench of Justices P S Narasimha and R Mahadevan set aside a Bombay High Court judgment that had held that private doctors were not entitled to the coverage under the government's insurance scheme.
"There is a requisition of the services of doctors and this is evident from the conjoint reading of the provisions of the Act, the Maharashtra Prevention and Containment of COVID-19 Regulations 2020, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation Order dated March 31, 2020, the PMGKY-Package Scheme, the explanatory communication to the PMGKY policy and the FAQs released," the bench said.
It said the invocation of laws and regulations was intended to leave no stone unturned in requisitioning the doctors and the insurance scheme was equally intended to assure doctors and health professionals in the frontline that the country is with them.
The court said individual claims for insurance made under the PMGKY-Package will be considered and decided in accordance with the law and on the basis of evidence.
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"The onus to prove that a deceased lost his life while performing a COVID-19-related duty is on the claimant and the same needs to be established on the basis of credible evidence," it added.
The top court was hearing a plea moved by Pradeep Arora and others against a March 9, 2021, order of the Bombay High Court that held that private hospital staffers were not entitled to receive benefits under the insurance scheme unless their services were requisitioned by the state or the central government.
A plea was filed in the high court by Kiran Bhaskar Surgade, who lost her husband -- who ran a private clinic in Maharashtra's Thane -- to COVID-19 in 2020.
The insurance company rejected her claim under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) on the ground that her husband's clinic was not recognised as a COVID-19 hospital.
The PMGKP was announced in March 2020 and its coverage has since been extended.
It was launched to provide a safety net to health workers to ensure that in case of any adversity due to COVID-19, their families are taken care of.
An insurance cover of Rs 50 lakh is provided to the health workers under the PMGKP, which has become a safety net for the dependents of the Covid warriors who lost their lives to the infection.
