The Mumbai Cricket Association’s (MCA) decision to remove Sulakshan Kulkarni as coach of the Mumbai team mid-season has not gone down well with its senior-most player Wasim Jaffer.
Talking to reporters at an event in Mumbai he said: “It obviously looks bad because out of all the Mumbai teams across different age groups, the Ranji Trophy team was the only team that got through to the knockout stage and the coach of that team has been sacked. It is not a nice thing. The MCA should have waited for the completion of the one-day and T20 tournaments and then taken a call.’’
Recently, the MCA managing committee - after listening to Kulkarni’s version of what caused the 40-time champion’s dismal showing and elimination in the quarterfinal - showed him the door.
“Over the last two months I kept on saying that to expect the same performance from the younger group (as compared to the seniors) would be hard because we had a different team last year. So to take out the anger and disappointment on the coach is slightly harsh,’’ said Jaffer.
Jaffer also said that the captain has his ideas and the coach can only give his inputs.
“The captain is always the boss because he is there (in the middle) to handle the players and he is the one who takes decisions. He can take everybody's advice, but at the end of the day, it is the captain who is counted on to deliver. You can say that the captain may not have listened to the coach's advice. I did not have a problem [with Kulkarni].’’
