Rajesh Borah (top) and Subhadeep Ghosh

Guwahati, June 30: Assam Cricket Association (ACA) today retained former first class cricketer Rajesh Borah as chief coach of the Assam Cricket Academy for the second straight year.

Disclosing this after today’s technical committee meeting, ACA secretary Bikash Baruah said former Ranji player Subhadeep Ghosh has also been appointed as a coach in the 10-member panel of the academy. The existing nine coaches have also been retained for a term of one year.

Baruah, however, added that the appointments would be subject to the approval of the governing body of the ACA.

The panel of coaches comprises Dhiraj Das, Gautam Dutta, Subhrajit Saikia, Subhadeep Ghosh, Subinoy Chakraborty, Sushanta Chakraborty, Rakesh Tewari, Manju Chutia, Utpal Dutta and Pranab Barua.

“Ghosh has been appointed as a fielding coach because he had been a consistent good fielder when he used to play for the state team,” Baruah added.

About retaining Borah as the chief coach, the ACA secretary said the technical committee assessed the performance of the academy in the last one year and found it satisfactory. “He was found sincere and dedicated enough to lead the academy’s activities.”

When contacted, Borah said he was grateful to the ACA for the confidence reposed in him and promised to be more proactive in the year ahead and produce quality players.

“Now that we have got better logistic support from the ACA, I hope we will be able to give more to the players. We propose a few changes in the year ahead to pick up talented players to be groomed at the academy,” Borah said.

The academy’s current session has already begun. The academy had organised a 10-day under-19 zonal coaching-cum-selection camp earlier this month. Another under-16 camp will be held next month.

“Henceforth, the players will not be picked up only on the basis of their performance in the zonal camps. They will now have to play matches among themselves so that the right talent could be spotted,” the chief coach said elaborating on the change in rules.

He added that the academy would go for longer camps of around 21 days. Earlier, the camps were organised for 15 days each.

Borah was recently offered the additional responsibility of the Assam Ranji Trophy team for the forthcoming season. He, however, refused the post citing official constraints.

The ACA is in touch with former Tripura coach and assistant coach of Indian Premier League’s Mumbai Indians team Samir Dighe. It said the recruitment process was still in the initial stages.