Lalchand Sitaram Rajput; (born 18 December 1961) is an Indian cricket coach and former

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

er who was also the former head coach of the Zimbabwe national team. Rajput played in two

Tests Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

and four

ODI ODI may refer to: * Object Design, Incorporated, a defunct database software company * One Day International, cricket match * Open Data Institute, a UK not-for-profit company promoting open data * Open Data-Link Interface, an implementation of th ...

s from 1985 to 1987. After the conclusion of his playing career, he served as manager of the Indian national team for a brief period, and also coached

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bord ...

from 2016 to 2017. He has also held administrative positions with the

Mumbai Cricket Association The Mumbai Cricket Association (formerly Bombay Cricket Association) is the governing body for cricket in Mumbai and surrounding regions such as Thane and Navi Mumbai. Its headquarter is situated at Cricket centre in Churchgate, Mumbai. It g ...

Playing career

Rajput had a distinguished career as an opening batsman for Bombay, and at one time was considered one of the best openers in India after

Sunil Gavaskar Sunil Manohar Gavaskar (Marathi pronunciation: uniːl ɡaːʋəskəɾ ; born 10 July 1949), is an Indian cricket commentator and former cricketer who represented India and Bombay from 1971 to 1987. Gavaskar is acknowledged as one of the grea ...

. However, he did not translate his promise and success at the domestic level to the international arena, in the limited opportunities he had. He was an occasional off-spinner.

Coaching career

Rajput attended a coaching clinic held at Bangalore in April 2007. He was coach of Under-19 Indian Cricket Team during the tour of England. Rajput was appointed as the manager of the World Cup winning Indian cricket team for the

2007 Twenty20 World Championship The 2007 ICC World Twenty20 was the inaugural Twenty20 International cricket world championship, contested in South Africa from 11 to 24 September 2007. Twelve teams took part in the thirteen-day tournament—the ten Test-playing nations and the ...

held in South Africa. Rajput was the coach of the

Mumbai Indians Mumbai Indians are a franchise cricket team based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, that competes in the Indian Premier League and is the most successful team of the tournament with 5 titles. Founded in 2008, the team is owned by India's biggest cong ...

in the

Indian Premier League The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as Tata Group, TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 cricket, T20 Professional sports league organization, franchise cricket Sports league, league of India. It is annually contested by ...

2008. He was caught on camera laughing when

Harbhajan Singh Harbhajan Singh (born 3 July 1980) is a member of parliament in Rajya Sabha and an Indian retired cricketer and cricket commentator, who played for the Indian national cricket team from 1998 - 2016. Singh was a right-arm spin bowler. In India ...

slapped

Sreesanth Shanthakumaran Nair Sreesanth (, born 6 February 1983) is an Indian former cricketer and film actor who played all forms of the game. He is a right-arm fast-medium-pace bowler and a right-handed tail-ender batsman. In first class cricket, he p ...

after a match between Mumbai Indians and

Kings XI Punjab Punjab Kings (PBKS) are a franchise cricket team based in Mohali, Punjab, that plays in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Established in 2008 as the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), the franchise is jointly owned by Mohit Burman, Ness Wadia, Preity Zi ...

. The BCCI expressed it was shameful that Rajput was laughing on witnessing the incident. It was expected that BCCI would take strong action against Rajput. In June 2016, Rajput was named as head coach of Afghanistan's national team, replacing

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

's Inzamam ul Haq; during his spell in charge, they defeated

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Great ...

in a one-day international at Gros Islet and were promoted to Full Membership of the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the world governing body of cricket. Headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, its members are List of International Cricket Council members, 108 national associations, with 12 List of Internation ...

. But his contract was ended by the Afghan board in August 2017; he was later replaced by

Phil Simmons Philip Verant Simmons (born 18 April 1963) is a Trinidadian cricket coach and former cricketer who was an all-rounder played as an opening batsman, a medium-fast bowler and a slip fielder. He is the current coach of the West Indies cricket ...

. In May 2018, he was named as the interim head coach of the

Zimbabwe national cricket team The Zimbabwe national cricket team, also known as the Chevrons, represents Zimbabwe in men's international cricket and is overseen by Zimbabwe Cricket (formerly known as the Zimbabwe Cricket Union). Zimbabwe has been a Full Member of the Intern ...

. In August 2018, he was appointed to the role on a permanent basis. In June 2019, he was named as the coach of the Winnipeg Hawks franchise team for the

2019 Global T20 Canada The 2019 Global T20 Canada was the second edition of the Global T20 Canada, a 20-over professional cricket tournament, played at the CAA Centre, Brampton, Ontario. It started on 25 July 2019, and concluded with the final on 11 August 2019. It w ...

tournament. In March 2022, Zimbabwe Cricket decided to extend the contract with him and he served as the head coach of Zimbabwe up until early June 2022. Following the conclusion of Zimbabwe's home series against Afghanistan, he was subsequently replaced by Dave Houghton as the new head coach of Zimbabwe.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rajput, Lalchand 1961 births Living people Cricketers from Mumbai India Test cricketers India One Day International cricketers West Zone cricketers East Zone cricketers Scotland cricketers Mumbai cricketers Assam cricketers Vidarbha cricketers Coaches of the Indian national cricket team Indian Premier League coaches Indian cricket coaches Coaches of the Afghanistan national cricket team Indian expatriates in Afghanistan Coaches of the Zimbabwe national cricket team