Stephen Fleming likely to be named coach of Pune

In Tuesday’s first IPL draft, the Pune franchise had bought five players – including CSK’s Dhoni, Ravichandran Ashwin, Faf du Plessis and Rajasthan Royals’ Ajinkya Rahane and Steven Smith. Soon after the draft, Harsh Goenka, chairman of RPG Enterprises and brother of Sanjeev Goenka, tweeted that they are on the way to build a formidable core team with Dhoni and Fleming.

“#IPLDraft Pune with Dhoni as Captain and Fleming as Coach has built a formidable core team. Winning choices made,” Harsh tweeted.Fleming, though, remained tight-lipped about the move.

“I am not in a position to make any comment at this point in time,” Fleming told on Wednesday.

At CSK, the Fleming-Dhoni partnership had won two IPL titles and were runners-up thrice. No wonder, the Pune franchise is keen on roping in Fleming.

Sanjeev confirmed that they are in the final stages of negotiations with the coach and an announcement will be made in the next couple of days. “We have approached a lot of people and have shortlisted a few. But I don’t think it would be right to reveal any names at this stage. We are in the final process of negotiations and you have to wait for a couple of more days for the name,” Sanjeev said on Wednesday.

Sanjeev, who co-owns ISL franchise Atletico de Kolkata with Sourav Ganguly, ruled out the possibility of involving the former India captain in the cricket franchise. “We are not thinking of getting Sourav on board. It is not even a remote possibility in the future,” said Sanjeev. With Dhoni already in the hut and Fleming likely to be confirmed as coach in the next few days, the Pune franchise is sending out a strong message for all the other teams.