Indian team accompanied by 17-member support staff

The Indian team is currently on tour of West Indies for a 4-match Test series against the hosts. It is a common practice these days of having a huge team of support staff along on overseas tours.

But Team India has gone a step ahead and have 17 support staff members travel with them. Along with the 17-men squad, they have equal number of support staff to keep up with the needs of the players. A surprising inclusion in the list is a yoga trainer named Manoj Kumar.

As per the reports of the Hindustan Times, an official said, “The sport is becoming very professional. You cannot leave anything for granted. Yoga is a new thing introduced for the team. With the sport developing at a rapid pace, the onus is on the backroom staff to prepare the players and keep them stress-free for every assignment. Indian team is a professional unit now.”

Another BCCI official admitted that nowadays it has become a fashion to send quite a number of support staff with major international teams. “It has become a fashion these days to have a big support staff… all major international teams have it. Don’t be surprised to see more members in the backroom than the players in future. With the rising demands, there is a possibility of players wanting their individual support staff for tours in the future” he said.

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The support staff, as listed by the Hindustan Times, is as follows:

Anil Kumble (head coach), Abhay Sharma (fielding coach), Sanjay Bangar (batting coach), Arun Kanade (massage therapist), Manoj Kumar (yoga trainer), Rajiv Kumar (massage therapist), Patrik Farhat (Physio), Shankar Basu (trainer), Raghu Srinivasan (assistant trainer), Rishikesh Upadhyay (logistics manager), Nishant Arora (Media manager), Rtd Major Manvinder Bali (security manager), Asish Tuli (video analyst), Moulin Parikh (assistant media manager), Vikram Rathour (national selector), Sandip Patil (chief national selector), Riyaz Bagban (administrative manager)