It’s quite rare to see the coach of a team criticize the captain in the public domain. But this rare incident took place in the semi-final clash between Tamil Nadu and Mumbai. When Tamil Nadu’s coach Sulkashan Kulkarni publicly criticized Team Skipper Sai Sudarshan’s decision to bat first,.
This statement from the coach earned a lot of criticism on social media. Even Indian cricketer Dinesh Kartik went on to criticize the coach for his conduct.
Karthik took to his social media account and wrote, “This is so wrong. This is so disappointing from the coach. Instead of backing the captain who has brought the team to the semis after 7 years and thinking it’s a start for good things to happen, the coach has absolutely thrown his captain and team under the bus.”
On the other hand, Tamil Nadu’s coach Sulkashan Kulkarni publicly accused captain Sai Sudarshan of the team’s loss in the semi-final against Mumbai.
Kulkarni said “I always speak straightforwardly: we lost the match at 9 o’clock on day one,” Kulkarni said after Tamil Nadu lost the semi-final contest to Mumbai by an innings and 70 runs. “The moment I saw the wicket, I exactly knew what we were going to get. Everything was set; we won the toss. As a coach and Mumbaikar, I know the conditions well. We should have bowled, but the captain had some different instincts.”
Kulkarni further added, “When I saw that they had played on a different pitch in the quarter-final and what wicket they gave, (that) moment I realized that this is a seaming-friendly wicket and it was going to be a very tough match, we would have to play really well to win this game.”
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Ultimately, he [Sai Kishore] is the boss. I can give my feedback and inputs (on) the kind of wickets and Mumbai’s mindset also.”
Kulkarni further went on to say that Tamil Nadu lost the match pretty much in the opening hour when they lost their skipper, Sai Sudarshan.
