U Mumba parts ways with defense coach Jeeva Kumar
U Mumba, the former champions of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), have announced that they are no longer working with defence coach Jeeva Kumar. This news comes ahead of the upcoming PKL season.
Jeeva Kumar is a familiar name in the PKL world. He wasn't just a coach for U Mumba; he was also a key player for them during their championship run in PKL season 2. Last season, he returned to the team in a coaching capacity, lending his experience and knowledge to the defence.
However, the defense of U Mumba did not receive a boost in improvement while Jeeva was the coach. U Mumba was the second worst in tackling success rate at the end of that season. In 22 matches, they completed a total of 199 successful tackles which in sharp contrast to the champions Puneri Paltan who made 331 of them. Out of 12 teams, only Bengal Warriors were even worse than U Mumba in this regard, with 192 successful tackles. By all probabilities, the team management was convinced that this one area required change for better performance.
U Mumba announced Jeeva's departure through an Instagram post acknowledging his contributions. "We at U Mumba extend our heartfelt thanks to Jeeva Kumar for his invaluable contributions to our team," the statement read. "Wishing him all the best in his future endeavors! Jeeva will always remain a strong part of our U Mumba family."
On the other hand, it appears that Jeeva Kumar, who was involved as a coach with U Mumba, is pretty much ok now. He posted a vlog on his Instagram recently, as showing himself having fun at the beach. Thus, when filming the video, Jeeva was appropriately motivated pursuing more engagement by demonstrating the recognition of fans, as the video received huge amount of likes.
Jeeva may even get a coaching assignment with another PKL franchise for the upcoming PKL season 11.
The U Mumba are yet to announce a new name in the place of Jeeva Kumar. It will be good to wait and see who they select as their new defence coach. It will be interesting to see whether the selected coach will fit the bill in resolving some of the defensive miseries the team received the previous season.
Only time will tell what the future holds for Jeeva Kumar's coaching career, but one thing is for sure - from the scenario analysis, it can be concluded that if U Mumba is planning to regain its lost glory in the next season of PKL, they have to focus much stronger on defense.
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