Chennai/New Delhi, Oct 15 (IANS) Indian bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad and fielding coach Robin Singh were Thursday sacked by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) after a review of their performance in the recent overseas tours.
In a terse statement, the board said: “The BCCI has decided to discontinue the services of bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad and fielding coach Robin Singh with immediate effect.”

A senior board official told IANS that the decision was taken after a meeting of board president Shashank Manohar with coach Gary Kirsten.

“It was noticed that the showing of the fast bowlers and also the fielding was not up to the mark. The board president had a meeting with coach Gary Kirsten before taking the decision.”

Both Prasad and Singh had taken over as coaches since the tour to Bangladesh just after the India’s disastrous World Cup campaign in 2007.

They had been retained in March along with the rest of India’s support staff.

India fared badly in Twenty20 World Cup in England and the Champions Trophy in South Africa because of poor fielding and wayward bowling by the fast bowlers.

Singh was recently appointed the coach of the Indian Premier League (IPL) team Mumbai Indians while Prasad is now the bowling coach of Chennai Super Kings after serving in the same capacity with the Bangalore Royal Challengers.

Prasad said he came to know about his sacking Thursday morning via an email. The 40-year old-former India fast bowler said he was “disappointed and deeply hurt” by it.

Speaking to IANS from his hometown Bangalore, Prasad, who represented India in 33 Tests and 161 ODIs over seven seasons, said: “Yes, I received an email at about half-past eleven this morning, but I haven’t really gone through that. Of course, I am very disappointed. At this moment, I wish the Indian team every success in the coming series against Australia.”

When asked whether the termination of his services was directly linked to the recent poor performances of Ishant Sharma, the current Indian spearhead, Prasad said: “Ishant is a fantastic prospect. I am sure he will bounce back. He is very hard working young man.”

Some suspected that 21-year-old Ishant was struggling under non-stop cricket and consequent heavy workload besides huge expectations following his meteoric rise since his international debut two seasons ago.

Prasad said: “These days, all the cricketers are professionals and they have to learn to manage. Like I said earlier, Ishant is a great prospect.”

On the role of the coaching staff in nurturing young fast bowling talent like Ishant by way of being selective of tournaments and series to be played in, Prasad said: “There has to be a good communication between the coaching staff and the national selectors. I think, communication is the key to success.”

Besides the communication, he felt that the authorities needed to give sufficient weightage to the opinions and views of the coaching staff on matters relating to the players.

“I don’t want to continue speaking on this. Please excuse me,” he said while declining to comment anything more on whether there was effective communication between the coaching staff and the national selectors on player fitness levels, be it physical or mental.