Delhi Capitals reject Sourav Ganguly as head coach after sacking Ponting, want someone like Gautam Gambhir: Report

Delhi Capitals is highly unlikely to appoint Sourav Ganguly as their new head coach after deciding to part ways with Ricky Ponting despite the former India captain putting his hand up.

A day before DC went public with Ponting’s sacking after seven long seasons, Ganguly, in an interview with Bengali Daily Aajkaal, expressed his desire to don the coach’s hat for the first time in his career.

“Why not me? Let’s see if I can do it or not. We need to rope in some new players. I wanted to bring in England’s new star, Jamie Smith, for DC’s SA20 side (Pretoria Capitals). He was even ready to come in, but then England will be busy for their India tour at that time,” Ganguly said.

DC, however, is not keen on giving Ganguly the dual responsibility of Director of Cricket and head coach, reported News18. The former BCCI president is DC’s Director of Cricket and oversees DC’s sister franchises, the ILT20 team Dubai Capitals and the SA T20 league side Pretoria Capitals.

“Ganguly already has a lot of things on his plate – planning multiple things for the franchise as the Director of Cricket,” a source was quoted as saying in the report.

DC, in fact, are looking at someone like Gautam Gambhir, who has had great success in his short career as a mentor, eventually opening the doors for him to become the head coach of Team India. Gambhir took the Lucknow Super Giants to the playoffs in his first two seasons and then helped the Kolkata Knight Riders win the IPL after a decade.

“The team needs a very hands-on coach who follows the circuit very aggressively. Like Gautam Gambhir does. It’s no surprise that he has been so successful as a mentor. He keeps track of players – both international and domestic,” the source added.

The main reason why DC does not want to appoint Ganguly as their head coach is that they want stability, especially before the mega auctions.

“The management doesn’t want a stop-gap arrangement for the head coach position as it’s the season right after the mega auction as the new cycle gets underway,” the source added.

DC in talks with former World Champions

The report adds that DC are in touch with two former World Cup-winning cricketers to join their team as the head coach. A final decision, however, will only be taken after the Major League Cricket ends.

DC support staff and scouting team will see a new look ahead of the next season in 2025. “The only person who had played some sort of cricket in the scouting team was Jagrit Anand (white-ball games for Delhi). After he was let go, the remaining two Shyantanu Chokhani and Adhishwar haven’t played any serious cricket. And no wonder the returns of the scouting team have been very underwhelming. Is there one cricketer who comes to mind which was unearthed by the scouting team? No,” the source informed.

DC is one of the three teams from the original eight to have never won a single IPL title. Under Ponting, the Capitals made a forgettable start in 2018, ending with the wooden spoon. The subsequent years were much better, as they finished third in 2019, runner-up in 2020 and made it to a third consecutive Playoffs in 2021. However, the last three seasons have been average, with DC finishing 5th, 9th and 6th in 2022, 2023 and 2024.