On Saturday, the Delhi Capitals officially announced the end of their association with Ricky Pointing. But did you know that it was Sourav Ganguly who first informed about this development? In an interview, the DC manager ‘ broke the news.’ Ricky, whose seven-year-long association with the Capitals as their head coach, began in 2018 and has come to an end on July 14. Ganguly reacted strongly about former Australian captain’s performance during his time in charge.
Under Ricky, the Capitals made a forgettable start in 2008 that ended with a wooden spoon. Rest of the years were much better, as they finished 3rd in 2019, runner-up in 2020 and made it to a third consecutive playoff in 2021. However, the last 3 sessions have been average, with DC finishing 5th, 9th and 6th in 2022, 23 and 24. While sharing inputs of the legendary Geoffrey Boycott, Ganguly threw hi former DC colleague under the bus, sounding critical for the three-time World Cup-winning Australian.
:Let me give you some news. Ricky Ponting won’t be the DC coach anymore. Geoffrey Boycott is absolutely right! Ponting has not taken DC forward in these seven years. You need to talk to the management. I would suggest looking at Indian options for the coach,” Ganguly said.
DC is one of the three teams from the original eight who has never won a single IPL title and the end of Ricky’s tenure indicates that the franchise is looking at someone else. Ricky’s departure vacates the head coach position, for which Ganguly is himself very keen to apply.
It seems that Ganguly is keen to come back to cricket, working closely with DC unit, considering he has served administrative roles as president of the BCCI from 2019 to 2021 and working as President of the Cricket Association of Bengal(CAB) before that.
:Why not me? Let’s see if I can do it or not. We need to rope in some new players. I wanted to bring in England’s new star Jamie Smith for DC’s SA20 side (Pretoria Capitals). He was even ready to come in, but then England will be busy for their India tour at that time,” Ganguly added.
One interesting thing to note is that if Ganguly land on this, it will be his first one as a coach in any format or tournament. Ganguly, who debuted in 2019 as an advisor, had to give up the post due to bigger commitments. Although, he made a return last year as Director of cricket and is looking over DC’s sister franchises, ILT20 team Dubai Capitals and the SA T20 league side Pretoria Capitals.
