Former Indian Player Manoj Prabhakar appointed as Nepal Head coach
Manoj Prabhakar, a former cricketer for India, has been named as the head coach of Nepal. He takes over after Pubudu Dassanayake, who left the position in July for "personal reasons" in order to accept a comparable role in Canada.
Prabhakar participated in 169 international matches as a bowling all-arounder for India. He served as the head coach for three Ranji Trophy teams and also served as the Afghanistan bowling coach in 2016.
The Cricket Association of Nepal confirmed his appointment via a statement. The statement read, " Former Indian star all-rounder and Ranji trophy winning coach, Mr Manoj Prabhakar from India has been appointed as the Head Coach of Nepal National Cricket Team. Mr Prabhakar has played 39 Test matches and 130 One Day Internationals for India. As a Coach, he has experience of working as coach of Afghanistan Cricket Team along with Ranji Trophy teams of Delhi, Rajasthan and UP Cricket Association."
I'm really looking forward to working with the Nepal cricket team: Manoj Prabhakar
Former Indian star all rounder and Ranji trophy winning coach, Mr. Manoj Prabhakar from India has been appointed as the Head Coach of Nepal National Cricket Team.
— CAN (@CricketNep) August 8, 2022
Mr. Prabhakar has played 39 Test matches and 130 One Day Internationals for India. As a Coach, he has experience
+ pic.twitter.com/VMf60RlJNb
The induction of Prabhakar comes at a crucial time for Nepal cricket. Nepal has missed out on qualification for the 2022 ICC Men's T20 World Cup while Ireland and the UAE advanced from the ICC Men's T20 World Cup Qualifier. With eight victories in 20 games, they are currently ranked second to last in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup League 2 standings.
Delighted with his new role, Manoj Prabhakar said, "Seeing the interest for cricket in Nepal, their talent & skill level, I’m really looking forward to working with the Nepal cricket team to make them into a cricketing force to be reckoned with."
Interestingly, Prabhakar has a not-so-good history with the game. It all started in 1997 when Prabhakar, a swing bowler who was once Kapil Dev's teammate, claimed in an interview with the magazine Tehelka that Dev had bribed him (Rs 2.5 million) in exchange for playing poorly at a Singer Cup One-day International event in Colombo in 1994. After a thorough inquiry by the CBI, Kapil was ultimately found not guilty of all the accusations made by Prabhakar. Intriguingly, three years after Prabhakar's shocking allegations, the match-fixing scandal emerged when Delhi Police listened in on tapes of a discussion involving South African captain Hansie Cronje and a bookie. Ironically, Prabhakar's name was among the cricketers from other nations whose identities Cronje disclosed and who were associated with the fixing scandal. After a CBI probe, Prabhakar was banned for five years.