By Qaiser Mohammad Ali
Kolkata(IANS) : Former India captain Mohammed Azharuddin will be coaching some English cricketers in Chennai next week.
“From here I am going to Chennai because one of my friends, Sachin Bajaj, has called me. I will coach an ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) team for two days, especially the batsmen,” Azharuddin, who is here to watch the second India-Pakistan Test, told IANS.
A team of the England Performance Programme (EPP), formerly known as the ECB National Academy, is in Chennai to gain the experience of playing in tough and testing Indian conditions. Their programme includes one three-day and one four-day matches against Indian and Sri Lankan first-class teams.
“It’s a good opportunity. If I can help somebody, it will be good,” said Azharuddin, who has played 99 Tests and 334 One-Day Internationals for India.
Azharuddin’s pupils will include England’s ODI players like Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad, who was hit for six successive sixes by Yuvraj Singh in the Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa in September, and Graham Onions.
Azharuddin, one of the most stylish batsmen of 1980s and 1990s, also gave tips to England’s Test batsman Owais Shah when he flew down to his home city Hyderabad sometime ago.
The former captain, who was here at the invitation of the Cricket Association of Bengal, was banned by the Indian cricket board in 2000 for his alleged involvement in the Hansie Cronje match-fixing case.
The right-handed batsman amassed 6,215 runs at an average of 45.03 in Tests, with 22 centuries and 21 half-centuries. In ODIs, he tallied 9,378 runs at 36.92, with seven centuries and 58 half-centuries.