Who was the coach of the Indian team that won the 2007 T20 World Cup?
On this day (September 24) in 2007, Team India were crowned inaugural champions of the Men's T20 World Cup. In a nail-biting final played at the New Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg, the Men in Blue beat arch-rivals Pakistan by five runs to create cricketing history.
The triumph in the 2007 T20 World Cup marked an amazing turnaround in India's fortunes after they had been knocked out of the 50-over World Cup in West Indies in the first round. The Rahul Dravid-led side suffered an ignominious exit from the ICC event following losses to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Under a young MS Dhoni, though, the Men in Blue went on to lift the T20 World Cup in South Africa in the same year to give fans plenty to cheer about. While Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir, and Irfan Pathan were the on-field heroes for India, not much is spoken about the coach-cum-manager of the side during that ICC event.
With the Greg Chappell experiment having fallen flat on its face, the unheralded Lalchand Rajput was named as coach (officially manager) of the Indian cricket team for the 2007 T20 World Cup in South Africa. A former opening batter, Rajput represented India in two Tests and four ODIs between 1985 and 1987. He scored 32 and 61 on his Test debut against Sri Lanka but played only one more Test.
In his first-class career, the Mumbai-born cricketer played 110 matches and scored 7,988 runs at an average of 49.30, with 20 hundreds and 46 half-centuries. Apart from coaching India, the 62-year-old has also coached Afghanistan and Zimbabwe. In February 2024, he was appointed coach of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) men’s cricket team for three years.
"No one was expecting us to win" - Lalchand Rajput on 2007 T20 World Cup triumph
In September 2022, on the 15th anniversary of India's famous T20 World Cup triumph, Rajput reflected on how the Men in Blue, led by a young Dhoni, created history.
The former cricketer recalled that no one expected them to win, but added that they were motivated to do something. He said (as quoted by ESPNcricinfo):
"Those memories will always be there because we made history. No one was expecting us to win. Even before leaving [for South Africa], everyone was talking about the young team, with a new captain [MS Dhoni], and new coach; Dhoni was captaining for the first time, and I became coach for the first time. But we were motivated to do something. And by winning the World Cup, we created history."
India won the Men's T20 World Cup for the second time earlier this year when the Rohit Sharma-led side beat South Africa by seven runs in the final in Barbados.