TNPL: Bharath Reddy named Madurai coach

CHENNAI: The Madurai franchise — renamed as Siechem Madurai Panthers — has roped in Bharath Reddy as their head coach ahead of the third edition of Tamil Nadu Premier League. Bharath, who manages the Chemplast cricket team in the TNCA first division league, is likely to bring on board Jayakumar as the batting coach of the side. Jayakumar has been the personal coach of India’s Test opener Murali Vijay for years now and also provided his expertise to players such as Sanju Samson in recent times.Pooja Damodaran, CEO of the franchise, felt Bharath fitted the bill since he had the experience of managing top-quality sides for years. “When we sat down to pick a coach — Bharath — was a name that immediately came to our mind as he has played the game at the highest level and gone on to successfully managed TNCA first division teams for long,” Pooja told TOI on Thursday evening.Pooja believes Bharath’s inputs will be crucial during the players’ draft scheduled to be held on May 31. “Bharath keeps a close watch on the players who are performing well on the TNCA league circuit and he has always had an eye for spotting new talent,” she said. Madurai is the only team in the competition to have not won a single match in two seasons, and Pooja is confident that the performance will be way better this time around. “As a franchise we have not had a good outing in the first two seasons, but we are confident that with Bharat at the helm — things will become better this season,” she said. It is learnt that the team will be practising at a newly constructed ground near ICF in Chennai.