RCB adds Navnita Gautam to support staff; becomes the first woman to join an IPL team behind the scenes

Navnita Gautam became the first woman, in the history of the Indian Premier League to be a part of a franchise's support staff after Royal Challengers Bangalore recently signed her as the sports massage therapist for the upcoming season in 2020.

Gautam will work alongside former Indian team trainer Shankar Basu, who is the strength and conditioning coach at RCB along with Evan Speechly, the head physiotherapist of the side.

Navnita Gautam joins us as a sports massage therapist for the 13th edition of IPL. She will work to identify, and implement massage therapy to help the team prepare and recover better..We are proud to be the first IPL team to have a woman support staff member..#PlayBold pic.twitter.com/Y7CFR0WKDB

— Royal Challengers (@RCBTweets) October 17, 2019

Navnita Gautam joins us as a sports massage therapist for the 13th edition of IPL. She will work to identify, and implement massage therapy to help the team prepare and recover better..We are proud to be the first IPL team to have a woman support staff member..#PlayBold pic.twitter.com/Y7CFR0WKDB

— Royal Challengers (@RCBTweets) October 17, 2019

Gautam will be in charge of performing specialized skills that are concerned with motivation, preparation and overall supervision of all physical ailments among players in the team.

"I am very pleased to be a part of this moment in history and another step in the right direction," said RCB chairman, Sanjeev Churiwala to Cricbuzz. "The game has come a long way, in many ways, in terms of the Women's Cricket Team and how many people are watching it, the interest was long due.

"Sport is a great enabler, but it is important to ensure that the principles of equity in participation also extends to its staffing bodies. Increasing participation and success by women in all sporting arenas have made this possible and we at RCB are very thrilled to have found great talent in Navnita," he added.

RCB are yet to lift an IPL trophy and had a disastrous start to the IPL this year as they lost seven games on the trot. They eventually finished at the bottom of the table, following which the franchise made changes to their support staff.

Head coach of 2019 Gary Kirsten has been replaced by Simon Katich for 2020 while Mike Hesson, former head coach of Kings XI Punjab, takes over the responsibility of Director of Cricket. Bowling coach of 2019 Ashish Nehra has been released as well.

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