GMR, JSW to distribute Delhi Capitals cricket operations; announce Hemang Badani as head coach and Venugopal Rao as director of cricket

Hyderabad: The GMR Group and the JSW Group have announced that they would be distributing the running of cricket operations of Delhi Capitals between themselves on a two-year rotational basis.

The move to manage the teams – Delhi Capitals in both the Indian Premier League and the Women’s Premier League – on a rotational basis aims at optimising operational efficiency across the teams under the Delhi Capitals umbrella.

While the day-to-day cricket operations will be distributed, decisions on player auctions, player releases and retention, captaincy etc will be taken by the Delhi Capitals board in which the senior leadership of both GMR Group and the JSW Group are present.

According to the new understanding, the GMR Group will oversee cricketing operations of Delhi Capitals in the IPL for the 2025 and 2026 season while JSW Group will be incharge of the franchise in the WPL for the same period. The roles reverse in 2027 with JSW taking over the men’s team and GMR taking over the women’s team for a two-year period.

The Delhi Capitals management has also Dubai Capitals in the ILT20 League and Pretoria Capitals in the SA20 league under their umbrella. However, the Dubai Capitals in the ILT20 will be solely run by the GMR Group while JSW will manage Pretoria Capitals in the SA20 league completely.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Capitals have announced the appointment of Hemang Badani as their head coach of the IPL franchise while former India player-turned-commentator Venugopal Rao will head the unit as the director of cricket.

Badani replaces Rocky Ponting as the head coach while Venugopal Rao takes former India captain Sourav Ganguly’s role as the director of cricket.

Venugopal Rao has played 16 ODIs for India and was a player with the now-defunct Deccan Chargers and won the IPL trophy in the 2009 edition. He was also a part of the Delhi Daredevils squad from 2011-13.

The former India player also served as a mentor and the director of cricket with the Dubai Capitals team.

Meanwhile, southpaw Badani has played four Test matches and 40 ODIs for India. He was a part of the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL as a fielding coach and a batting coach.

His coaching experience comes from coaching Jaffna Kings to two consecutive Lanka Premier League titles, a batting coach stint with Sunrisers Eastern Cape and the head coach of Dubai Capitals.