Tamil Nadu appoints Sulakshan Kulkarni as head coach

CHENNAI: Former Mumbai cricketer and coach Sulakshan Kulkarni was on Thursday appointed as the head coach of the Tamil Nadu senior men's team for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons.

Kulkarni's appointment was made on the recommendations of theTamil Nadu Cricket Association's Cricket Advisory Committeewhich met here on Thursday, a press release said.

The 56-year old Kulkarni, a wicket-keeper-batter, will take over from former India cricketer M Venkataramana who was made the coach in 2021.

Kulkarni, who coached Mumbai to the Ranji title in the 2012-13 season, played 65 first-class matches, scoring 3332 runs (including six hundreds) and took 122 catches and effected 21 stumpings. He has also coached Vidarbha and Chhattisgarh teams and was a batting coach with Nepal previously. Tamil Nadu did not fare well in this year's domestic tournaments. They did not make the knockout stage of Ranji Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (20 overs tournament) but made the quarterfinals of Vijay Hazare Trophy (50 overs).