Gautam Gambhir to recuse himself from taking interviews for Delhi's support staff

NEW DELHI: Gautam Gambhir will recuse himself from all the support staff recruitment interviews for Delhi's senior men's team to be conducted by the high-powered Cricket Committee of Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), with some of his old team-mates in the fray.Gambhir is a special invitee to the committee comprising Virender Sehwag, Aakash Chopra and Rahul Sanghvi.The likes of Mithun Manhas and Rajat Bhatia have applied for the post of senior team's coach. They have played first-class cricket alongside Gambhir for a decade."Gautam will not be a part of any Ranji Trophy recruitment meetings as it might lead to conflict of interest. However, he is expected to play an active part in drawing blueprint for Delhi cricket. He will very much be a part of recruitment process of U-19 and U-16 (teams). He wants to have a close look at how the DDCA is looking after its grassroots programme," a senior DDCA official said on Friday.While KP Bhaskar has once again applied for post of chief coach, there is very little chance that he would get a third year in the hot seat. Manhas is an interesting candidate shortlisted for the position. He has, in fact, played under both Sehwag and Chopra and at times even captained them in the state and zonal side.Manhas was also the batting coach of Kings XI Punjab where Sehwag was head of the coaching staff. Bhatia has also applied for trainer's position as he has done a certification course.Manoj Prabhakar has also filled the application for coach, along with outstation candidates Ajay Ratra (Haryana), Lalchand Rajput and Sulakshan Kulkarni (both from Mumbai).Hari Gidwani and Vinay Lamba have once again applied for the post of selectors.