The 2023 year is just days away and fans around the world are set to witness some mouthwatering domestic league cricket in the next year. Following the auctions of the 16th edition of the Indian Premier League, teams will start the brainstorming work to finalise their playing combinations. While we are also all set to see the inaugural edition of the SA T20 League getting kicked off in January 2023. However, ahead of the much-awaited action in the domestic circuits, MI have made some big appointments to their support staff.
The MI franchise on Wednesday announced appointments of former cricketers at their senior support staff positions. Ahead of IPL 2023, Mumbai Indians have roped in former Indian domestic cricket star J Arunkumar as the team's assistant batting coach. The MI franchise also booked the services of former New Zealand star all-rounder Jacob Oram ahead of the first edition of the SA20 League. Oram is named as MI Cape Town's bowling coach.
Arunkumar represented Karnataka in the Indian domestic circuit from 1993 to 2008 and was recently USA national team's head coach. He has also led Karnataka to back-to-back title wins in the Ranji Trophy as the batting coach. Meanwhile, Oram has also been a star Kiwi all-rounder during his playing days. Oram has represented New Zealand in 33 Tests, 160 ODIs, and 36 T20Is.
Earlier, MI made big changes to their support staff after acquiring two franchises- MI Cape Town and MI Emirates in the South African SA20 League and UAE's ILT20 league, respectively. The franchise elevated then Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene as global head of performance, while named Zaheer Khan, who was the director of cricket operations till last season as the global head of cricket development for all three teams.
5-time IPL winners Mumbai had appointed Mark Boucher as the head coach of Rohit Sharma's MI, while former star player Kieron Pollard was named as the batting coach. In the MI Cape Town, MI now have Simon Katich (head coach), Jacob Oram (Bowling coach), Hashim Amla (batting coach), James Pamment (fielding coach), and Robin Peterson (team manager).
