Harshad Khadiwale replaces Sulakshan Kulkarni as Maharashtra head coach

Pune, Jul 1 (PTI) Former cricketer Harshad Khadiwale on Tuesday replaced Sulakshan Kulkarni as the head coach of Maharashtra’s men’s senior team for the 2025-26 season.

Kulkarni was appointed as the director of cricket and head coach of the Maharashtra team for two years in May 2024 but he has now been replaced by the 36-year-old Khadiwale, a former Maharashtra opener and right-arm seamer.

Kulkarni had previously coached Tamil Nadu to the Ranji Trophy semifinals in the 2023-24 season.

Placed in Elite Group A, Maharashtra had only two wins, three defeats and two drawn games out of seven in the first round and had finished fifth.

Khadiwale, from Pune, played 80 First-Class matches scoring 5,367 runs at 40.96 with 12 centuries and 26 fifties for Maharashtra between November 2006 to November 2017. He also played 38 List A matches and 26 T20s.

His experience of having shared the dressing room with some of the current Maharashtra players as well as working with them in the past, including in the Maharashtra Premier League, are believed to be the reasons behind his appointment.

The Maharashtra Cricket Association also made other appointments for the upcoming domestic season, shuffling some members of the coaching and support staff while retaining a few in their roles.

Former First-Class cricketer Akshay Darekar will continue as the chairman of the senior selection committee which has Kiran Adhav, Rohit Jadhav, Salil Agharkar and Ameya Shrikhande as the other members.

Amit Patil will be the fielding coach of the senior team, while Samad Fallah will be their bowling coach.

Other appointments: Senior team support staff: Pankaj Chopade (physio), Mahesh Patil (strength and conditioning), Neeraj Thorat (masseur), Swwapnil Kadaam (video analyst), Nilesh Shinde (side armer), Mandar Dedge (team manager).

U-23 selectors: Sangram Atitkar (chairman), Bhagwan Kakad, Mangesh Vaidya, Rahul Kanade, Anant Neralkar.

U-23 support staff: Niranjan Godbole (head coach), Nikhil Paradkar (assistant coach), Anupam Sanklecha (bowling coach), Mohsin Sayyed (fielding coach), Sandip Gaikwad (physio), Vinod Yadav (strength and conditioning), Sachin Mane (video analyst), Akshay Sakhare (side armer), Mohammad Poonawala (team manager).

Under-19 selectors: Milind Gunjal (chairman), Atul Gaikwad, Shailesh Bhonsale, Shirish Kamthe, Ketan Doshi.

U-19 support staff: Indrajit Kamtekar (head coach), Dipak Shilamkar (assistant coach), Domnic Muthuswamy (bowling coach), Digambar Waghmare (fielding coach), Swarup Nimbhore (physio), Laksh Gupta (strength and conditioning), Varun Deshpande (video analyst), Shubham Chavan (masseur), Pratik Dalal (side armer), Rahul Arwade (team manager). PTI DDV ATK