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Former Indian cricketer Lalchand Rajput has been appointed as the head coach of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on a three-year deal.
"Former Indian Test batter Lalchand Rajput has been appointed the head coach of UAE men's national team for a three-year period," UAE Cricket said in a statement. Rajput officially will take charge of the team this week and his first assignment will be the ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 ODI tri-series being hosted in UAE, with Scotland and Canada as the other participants. The tri-series begins on Wednesday, February 28. UAE will host Scotland for three bilateral T20Is next month. Rajput represented India in six international matches in 1985. After his retirement, Rajput took up coaching and progressed to become one of the most accomplished coaches in India. Thereafter, he coached India's ICC Men's T20 World Cup-winning team in 2007. Rajput also coached the Afghanistan team in 2016-17. During his tenure, Afghanistan was awarded Test status by the International Cricket Council. His next stint was with Zimbabwe's men's team - 2018 to 2022. Rajput helped Zimbabwe qualify for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup (Australia 2022). Rajput said he wanted to thank the Emirates Cricket Board for appointing him for this exciting role. "UAE has emerged as one of the stronger Associate Members in recent years and the players have put in some good performances in both ODIs and T20Is. The current batch is exceptionally talented and I look forward to working with them and further harnessing their cricket skills," he said. "I am confident that the boys buoyed by their exposure to top-quality cricket and practice facilities here in Dubai will continue to prosper. UAE cricket has a very bright future and my goal would be to make the team perform more consistently and take them to the next level which I am very confident they are fully capable of," he added. General Secretary Emirates Cricket Board Mubashshir Usmani said they are delighted to announce the appointment of Lalchand Rajput as UAE men's head coach. "Rajput has a proven track record and has done an exceptional job as a coach for various national and domestic teams around the world." "We are confident that under his coaching UAE men's cricket will flourish further. I also want to take this opportunity to thank Mudassar Nazar for his stellar work as the interim head coach. Mudassar will now return to his role as Head of the National Academy Programme where he will continue to identify and groom our future stars," he added. Lalchand played two Tests and four ODIs for India between 1985 and 1987. (ANI)
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