India's coach Duncan Fletcher flies to South Africa to attend father-in-law's funeral; Will miss UAE match

Duncan Fletcher leaving for South Africa to attend his father-in-law's funeral

The coach of the Indian team, Duncan Fletcher, has left for South Africa ahead of the team’s match against UAE in the ICC Cricket World Cup to attend his father-in-law's funeral. The date of his return is still unclear though.

Dr. Baba, the media manager of the Indian team, sent and email late Thursday night, stating, “Duncan has left for Cape Town to attend the funeral of his Father-in-law.”

Fletcher, whose origin is from Zimbabwe, has all his friends and family at Cape Town, the place he considers home now. Thus, the game against UAE at Perth will be played by an Indian team without a coach.

While Fletcher is absent, the other coaches will take charge of the team – Ravi Shastri, the Director of the team monitoring the event. Bharat Arun, the bowling coach, R. Sridhar, the fielding coach and Sanjay Bangar. India hope that due to the strong training staff, Fletcher’s absence won’t have an adverse effect on the team.

India, who are up against UAE next, will face West Indies led by the mighty Chris Gayle on March 6. The following two games after that will be in New Zealand, where they will play Ireland and Zimbabwe. So far, India has played two games and won both of them in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 which has put them in pole position to top Pool B.