Exclusive: In a first, BCCI appoints three women's coaches at CoE

MUMBAI: For probably the first time in its history, the Board of Control for Cricket in India has appointed a batch of three specialist women's coaches at its Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. Former India cricketers Nooshin Al Khadeer (bowling coach), Sunetra Paranjpe (batting coach) and Vellaswamy Ramu Vanitha (fielding coach) have all been appointed as the batting, bowling and fielding coaches at CoE.

Former India batting great VVS Laxman is the Head of Cricket at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru.



Many former cricketers have been appointed as coaches at BCCI's CoE, but this is the first time that a batch of ex-India women's cricketers have been recruited as specialist coaches for women's cricket at the world-class facility, which was known as national cricket Academy earlier.

Nooshin, who was an off-spinner, appeared in five Women's Tests (took 14 wickets@26.64), 78 WODIs (100 wickets@24.02) and two T20WIs (one wicket @41.00) for India from 2002 to 2012. She was the head coach of the victorious India Under-19 Women's teams in the 2023 and 2025 U-19 Women's T20 World Cups.

Paranjpe, an ex-India allrounder, played three Women's Tests and 28 WODIs from 2002-07. She has been the head coach of the Mumbai women's team for the last three seasons (Mumbai clinched Women’s domestic T20 titles in black-to back seasons in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 during her tenure), and has been the head coach of Baroda for three seasons before that. Vanitha ‘VR’, a former batter, played six ODIs and 16 T20Is between 2014-16.

Hailing the BCCI's decision to appoint three former India cricketers at CoE as coaches for the first time, former India women's team captain Diana Edulji told TOI, "It's a good step by the BCCI. It shows how much women's cricket has grown in India, and that the BCCI is taking it very seriously. It's another good development for Indian women's cricket after our team's maiden title triumph in the Women's World Cup last year. This trio will enable us to build the bench strength of women's cricket in the future, since these coaches are likely to go with India A, the Emerging women's team and India Under-19 tours."

The BCCI has also hired three fast-bowling coaches-former India pacers Lakshmipathy Balaji and former first-class pacer P Krishna Kumar, at CoE. Former Karnataka batter Yere Goud has been hired as the batting coach, Former Rajasthan wicketkeeper Dishant Yagnik has taken over as a fielding coach at the CoE.

Meanwhile, the Indian women’s cricket team is currently in England for an almost two-month long England tour, which also includes the historic one-off Women's Test at the iconic Lord’s cricket ground between India and England, which will be played from July 10-13. The 2026 Women's T20 World Cup will start on June 12, with England playing Sri Lanka at Birmingham on the opening night. India will launch their campaign against traditional arch-rivals Pakistan on June 14 at Birmingham. Placed in Group A, India will face Netherlands, South Africa, Bangladesh and Australia in the group stage.

The India women's team will play a T20 warm-up match, Team India vs ECB Development XI at the Ambassador Cruise Line Ground in Chelmsford on Monday, and will train under lights at the same venue on Tuesday.

JKCA's Rajesh Dhar is manager of Indian men's team for Afghanistan series
In possibly another first, Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association's Rajesh Dhar has been appointed by the BCCI as the manager for the short home series, comprising a one-off Test at New Chandigarh, and three ODIs in June.