Andhra ropes in WTC-winning coach Gary Stead for 2025-26 domestic season

In an interesting turn of events, the Andhra Cricket Association (ACA) has secured the services of the World Test Championship-winning coach, Gary Stead, for the upcoming 2025-26 domestic season.

Speaking about the excellent signing, ACA Secretary Sana Sathish has stated that they were initially looking at acquiring the services of an Australian coach, but his friend suggested getting Gary’s services, and they reached out for initial conversations, which later led to the signing.

"We were initially looking at an Australian coach. Then a friend suggested, why not try Gary? So we reached out to him, and right from the very first conversation, we were struck by his preparedness. He came to the meeting with a complete understanding of our team," he said to Cricbuzz.

For the unversed, Stead was associated with the Black Caps for a total of seven years before parting ways with the national team in June 2025. Notably, under Stead, New Zealand bagged the No.1 ranking in the ICC Test and ODI rankings.

Moreover, under him, New Zealand went on to win the ICC World Test Championship in 2021, defeating India, and also reached the ICC World Cup 2019 final, losing to England. Under him, the Kiwis defeated India in the ICC World Cup 2019 semi-final.

Speaking about Andhra’s 2024-25 domestic season, they finished at the sixth rank in the Ranji Trophy with one win and three losses in seven games. In the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2024-25 season, they finished fourth in Group B.

On the other hand, in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024-25 season, they occupied the pole position in their group ahead of the eventual winners, Mumbai, but suffered a loss to Uttar Pradesh in the pre-quarter-finals.

Unfortunately, Andhra will be without their senior player Hanuma Vihari, who left the state team before the start of the season. Ricky Bhui is expected to lead the side, with Saurabh Kumar being the other veteran of the side.

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