India U19 trainer Rajesh Sawant found dead in his hotel room

Sunday morning started with a shocking news coming from the Indian camp. The India U19 team is in Mumbai as they prepare for the five-match ODI series against the touring England U19 team. While the team is training for the first ODI to be played tomorrow the Indian trainer Rajesh Sawant was found dead in his hotel room today (January 29) morning.

He didn’t report to the team management and once he missed the schedule someone was sent to check for him and when they reached his hotel room Sawant was found unconscious, it was later confirmed that he was dead. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) got into action and joint secretary Amitabh Choudhary has asked Ratnakar Shetty to reach the spot and get more details.

“What I have gathered so far is he did not report for team activities in the morning, so people started looking for him and eventually he was found to have been passed away in his room,” Amitabh Choudhary, BCCI joint secretary, was quoted by Sportstar. “I have asked Prof. Shetty (Ratnakar Shetty, general manager – game development) to visit the site and keep me updated.”

Rajesh Sawant was without a doubt one of the best trainers in Indian domestic circuit and was thus handed the responsibility with the U19 team as a part of coach Rahul Dravid’s staff. He had in the past worked at National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru with junior players. As far as international experience is concerned Sawant held the position of the Afghanistan team trainer as well.

Also watch- After Rasool’s gum chewing incident a video of Sourav Ganguly doing something similar during the WC 2003 final surfaces

Since he is a part of Dravid’s team he had also trained the India A team during the two warm-up matches against touring England team that they played at Mumbai ahead of the start of the ODI series. The India A team included the likes of MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Ajinkya Rahane and others for the two practice games.