Five-time Indian Premier League champions Mumbai Indians announced a couple of big changes to their coaching setup on Wednesday as Mahela Jayawardene stepped down as head coach to take on a global role for the franchise along with Zaheer Khan.
As per a statement put out by MI, both Jayawardene and Zaheer will now play key roles for all three teams owned by the franchise – Mumbai Indians in the IPL, MI Emirates in the ILT20 and MI Cape Town in the SA20. While the former Sri Lanka captain will be Global Head of Performance for the franchise, the former India pacer will, who was the Director of Cricket Operations until now, will be the Global Head of Cricket Development.
Jayawardene was the head coach of MI since 2017 and helped the team win three IPL titles during that time. The franchise is yet to announce who the next head coach of MI will be.
Going forward, the franchise stated that Jayawardene’s responsibilities will include the “overall strategic planning, the creation of an integrated global high-performance eco-system, as well as responsibility for each team’s coaching and support structures, working closely with the team head coaches,”
“It is an absolute honour for me to lead MI’s global cricket operations,” said Jayawardene. “I am very happy to see MI grow globally. I look forward to this new responsibility to build a strong cohesive global brand of cricket.”
As for Zaheer, his responsibilities will include “player development, building on MI’s robust program around talent identification and grooming and adopting the same across geographies.”
“I am humbled to take on this new role,” said Zaheer. “MI has been home for me as a player and as a coaching team member, and now as we embark on a new journey, I look ahead to working closely with all the stakeholders in the global network to unearth new potential.”