Vijay Dahiya sacked, Sanjeev Sharma takes over as Delhi chief coach

New Delhi: The DDCA on Friday decided to sack Vijay Dahiya from the post of chief coach of the senior state side and promoted his understudy former India medium pacer Sanjeev Sharma in that position.

The All Powerful Sports Committee of the DDCA today met at the Feroze Shah Kotla and decided unanimously to sack Dahiya and appoint Sharma who has worked under Manoj Prabhakar and then Dahiya as an assistant coach. Former glovesman Rajiv Vinayak will be the assistant coach. Asked about the reason to remove Dahiya, a DDCA sports committee member told PTI,"He (Dahiya) wasn`t available for the whole season. He is associated with Kolkata Knight Riders and during the second phase when we prapare for Vijay Hazare Trophy, he will be busy with KKR camps. Now we don`t want somebody who can`t devote full attention towards Delhi cricket." Sharma, who had played 2 Test matches and 23 ODIs for India in late 1980`s and early 90`s will have his first assignment as chief coach in the NKP Salve Challengers Trophy where Delhi will play as Vijay Hazare National One Day Champions. "I am honoured that DDCA has entrusted with the duty of taking Delhi team forward. We have players like Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, who are successful international players. They will certainly help me as Delhi will be expected to beat all the top sides," Sharma told PTI today. Sehwag is expected to lead Delhi in the Challengers Trophy in which Gambhir would be absent due to his county engagements with Essex. "Since Viru will be available for Challengers, it will be a big boost. Gauti won`t be available as he will be busy with playing his last match for Essex during that time. But Unmukt will be playing and if Virat is interested, then nothing like it," said Sharma, who has played 89 first-class matches for Delhi, Railways and Rajasthan. PTI