Sanjay Bangar quits as Head Coach of Kings XI Punjab

Sanjay Bangar who has emerged as one of the most preferred batting coaches in India of late has ended his two-year relationship with the Kings XI Punjab team in the Indian Premier League (IPL). He was the assistant coach of the team for the 2014 season and in the following season was handed over the full charge of the team. Bangar made the decision to leave the team in the last week of November.

HT reported that the batting consultant of the Indian team had an argument with KXIP co-owner Preity Zinta during the last season as the team with the wooden spoon. “The decision was taken in the last week of November. I offered my resignation to the (Kings XI) board and they recently accepted my resignation,” Bangar told HT on Friday.

He said that in a tournament like IPL it is important to get the results, a team faring poor in consecutive seasons isn’t the best thing and that is the time when they should be working on reinforcement. “It is a professional set-up. The IPL is a model which is run on producing results. In the course of the tournament, there are debates and deliberations. You take certain decisions and there are some which are right and there are some which don’t go your way. It is all a part and parcel. We as professionals need to accept this thing. (For the last) two seasons we didn’t get the results we wanted. It was time to move on and let fresh ideas come in,” said Bangar.

Though he has quit from his in hand assignment there is nothing else he has tied on with. “I will weigh in my options. Being involved with the Indian team involves a lot of travel. I haven’t been in talks with any franchise so far. We will wait and see,” he said.

The 2014 season was the best for the Punjab based franchise where they raced through all the opponents who came their way to the final before ending as runners up. “It’s been a fabulous journey. It gives me immense satisfaction to see the players whom I picked when they were in their formative years to benefit from the exposure. There are a number of players who were able to showcase their talent like Manan Vohra, Sandeep Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha, who wasn’t getting the opportunities.

“Axar Patel, who was IPL’s best young cricketer, went on to play for India. Their progress gives me immense pride. We topped the league and reaching the final was the best part of my time with Kings XI,” said Bangar.

According to the Mumbaikar his experience in the IPL has helped him in his role with the Indian team as well. “You don’t have much time to work on the players during the IPL. It is about man management of players of various international credentials, managing young players and finding the right balance. It is a very profit-driven model where cost has to be managed, the dynamics of the auction need to be understood and manage a large group of players in a short time. Those are the valuable lessons I have learnt,” said Bangar.