Imphal: The Manipur Cricket Association has hired former Bihar batswoman Puspanjali Banerjee and former Indian opener Shiv Sunder Das to coach the senior women's and men's teams respectively for the upcoming BCCI tournaments.
The association also appointed four coaches for junior cricketers, six physiotherapists and six trainers.
Puspanjali, who had played for Bihar senior and U-19 teams, started her coaching stint with Jharkhand in 2006. Her latest stint with Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association from 2015 entails looking after the HPCA academy as well. She has completed the BCCI A and B-level coaching courses as well. Puspanjali is also an A level umpire as well.
Das, who earlier coached Odisha, is currently engaged with the U-16 camp at National Cricket Academy, Bangalore. He had applied for his release to take up the new assignment with Manipur.
Das is quite familiar with cricketers from the Northeast as he conducted a training camp for U-19 players at Shillong last year. Das, who hails from Odisha, played 23 Tests for India.
Association secretary S. Priyananda Singh said, "After becoming a full-fledged member of the BCCI, we have been on the lookout of coaches. We zeroed down on Puspanjali and Das as some of our players were already exposed to their coaching methods and spoke highly about them."
"We feel we are moving in the right direction but we cannot take anything for granted. We have to play well to win to set the right momentum for the future," he added.
Manipur is among the nine groups in the Plate division who will make their debut in Ranji Trophy this season.
The association has hired Probal Dutta as coach of the U-23 men's team, Sh. Ranjit Sharma for the U-19 men, S. Priyobrata Singh for U-16 men and Ritu Dhrub as coach for the U-19 and U-23 women's teams.
The six physiotherapists are Pawan Kumar Talupuru for senior men, Th. Kamlesh for U-23 men, Jesse Isaac Kothapalli for U-19 men, Pinky Maibam for U-16 men and Bipasa Chaudhury for the senior women's team and Harsha Gangwal for U-19 and U-23 women's team.
The trainers appointed are Manish Jha, Cherish Salam, Jasika Karam, Abhilasha Sharma and Hitiashi Basvaraju.
