IPL 2025 – Badani to take over as DC head coach, Venugopal Rao director of cricket

“Since there is a big auction, my job, in collaboration with our coaching team, has been terminated,” said Badani in a statement. “I can’t wait to get started.”

ESPNcricinfo has learned that the recruitment drive to strengthen the coaching bench will continue with more assistant coaches and advisors to be appointed.

As part of the restructuring, DC’s co-owners – GMR Group and JSW Sports – will rotate operational leadership roles every two years for their teams in the IPL and WPL; means GMR Group will take over the men’s team for the next two seasons and JSW Sports the women’s team in 2025 and 2026. As a result, Ganguly will take over as the director of cricket in the WPL for the next two seasons. Ganguly will switch to IPL from 2027 when JSW Sports will be in charge. In a press release on Thursday, the franchise said “key decisions such as auctions, captaincy, player release and retention of both teams will be made by the board of Delhi Capitals, and will be decided equally by the top management of both teams.”

Why Hemang Badani?
While the appointment of Badani, who played four Tests and 40 ODIs, is expected to arouse curiosity, the former Tamil Nadu captain has been a successful coach in the domestic T20 circuit. After being part of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) teams for the first few years, Badani was the coach of Chepauk Super Gillies, who won three TNPL titles. Through them, Badani played a major role in the development of young players like R Sai Kishore, the current captain of Tamil Nadu.

That experience played a role in Badani joining Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) as head coach in IPL 2022. Badani also has coaching experience in overseas T20 leagues: he was an assistant coach with Sunrisers Eastern Cape in 2023, when they won the first SA20. subject; he was also the coaching mentor of Jaffna Kings when the franchise won the Lanka Premier League in the recent series.

Badani has also been a part of Capitals teams in overseas leagues. Turning 48 next month, Badani was the head coach at Dubai Capitals (owned by GMR Group) who finished second in January in the ILT20. Most recently, he was also a coaching consultant for the Seattle Orcas in the MLC (Major League Cricket), another franchise in which the GMR Group has a stake.

Rao, who played 16 ODIs between 2005 and 2006, was part of the Deccan Chargers team that won the IP in 2009 and has also been part of the Dubai Capitals, starting as a consultant in the first season and becoming the director of cricket.