Mumbai Indians have also appointed former Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene as their coach ahead of IPL 2025. Jayawardene takes over from Mark Boucher, who managed the franchise for IPL 2024.
Jayawardene served as the head coach of Mumbai from 2017 to 2022.
“My journey in the MI family has been an evolutionary one,” Jayawardene said in a statement. “In 2017, the focus was on bringing together a group of talented people to play the best cricket ever and we did very well. Now to come back, at the same time in history, where we look to the future and the opportunity to continue to strengthen the passion for MI, build on the vision of the owners, and continue to add in the history of Mumbai Indians, it is an exciting challenge that I am looking forward to.”
After his first appointment as Mumbai’s head coach, Jayawardene has taken on a wider role in 2022 as head of global operations. In that role, he oversaw coaching and testing for all four franchise teams now – Mumbai Indians in the IPL, MI Emirates in the UAE’s ILT20, MI Cape Town in the SA20 and MI New York in the USA’s MLC.
“We are very happy to have Mahela as the head coach of the Mumbai Indians,” said Akash Ambani, the owner of the franchise. “With our international teams figuring out how to navigate their environment, an opportunity arose to bring him back to MI. His leadership, knowledge, and passion for the game have always benefited MI.”
Under Boucher, Mumbai made the playoffs in IPL 2023, losing in the qualifiers to Gujarat Titans, but the following season finished bottom of the table with just four wins from 14 matches.
Jayawardene’s first task in his second stint as head coach will be to complete Mumbai’s retention before the October 31 deadline.
Apart from coaching in the IPL, Jayawardene has managed teams in the Hundred (Southern Brave) and Bangladesh Premier League (Khulna Titans). Jayawardene has worked with the Sri Lankan team in various capacities, including a recent stint as a professional coach. During his tenure, Sri Lanka had won the 2022 Asia Cup in Dubai.
Each franchise will have a purse of INR 120 crore, which is an increase of INR 20 crore from the last time, to form the IPL 2025 team.
Source link
