Quick Facts
Biography
Lalchand Sitaram Rajput ; (born 18 December 1961) is a former Indian cricketer and the head coach of the Zimbabwe national team.
Rajput played in two Tests and four ODIs 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 from 2016 to 2017. He has also held administrative positions with the Mumbai Cricket Association.
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. 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 winning Indian cricket team for the 2007 Twenty20 World Championship held in South Africa.
Rajput was the coach of the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League 2008. He was caught on camera laughing when Harbhajan Singh slapped Sreesanth after a match between Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab. 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's Inzamam ul Haq; during his spell in charge, they defeated West Indies in a one-day international at Gros Islet and were promoted to Full Membership of the International Cricket Council.But his contract was ended by the Afghan board in August 2017; he was later replaced by Phil Simmons.
In May 2018, he was named as the interim head coach of the Zimbabwe national cricket team. 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 tournament.
