Rajasthan Royals (RR) received a massive jolt on Tuesday, September 9, as they parted ways with their long-standing CEO, Jake Lush McCrum. After Rahul Dravid's exit as head coach, and possibly skipper Sanju Samson's exit also, it is fair to say the Royals are in for a massive overhaul of things with regard to the leadership group. While Samson has not officially spoken to his team about his plans to leave RR, swirling rumors suggest that he may discontinue playing for the team ahead of the next IPL 2026 season.
Speaking about UK-born McCrum, Cricbuzz report states that currently, the young RR CEO is in transition phase, and that he has informed a few fellow franchises and industry colleagues of his decision to part ways with the Royals. Notably, McCrum, who has served with the Jaipur-based franchise in various roles - starting in a junior role, then moving to franchise's operations wing before finally being promoted to the CEO role in 2021 at just 28 years, is expected to be relieved of his role in October.
Notably, something seemed off during the SA20 mega auction on September 09 as McCrum was missing from the Pearl Royals management group. It seemed evident that the CEO might have resigned, since he is one of the active figures in the auction room for the Royals' various franchises across the globe. Kumar Sangakkara, who was present in South Africa for the auction, is widely tipped to return as head coach of the Royals after Dravid's resignation.
Rajasthan Royals set for new management era ahead of IPL 2026
For the unversed, with the head coach and CEO's exit, the Royals are set to enter a new chapter. While it is still not officially confirmed if Sangakkara will be the coach ahead of the IPL 2026 season, the southpaw actively led the Royals' bidding in the SA20 auction. The wholesome changes in the management are on the wake of their ninth-place finish has a major say in it. Dravid's sudden exit after he was offered the role for a long term has something to do with him sidelining some players and changing the dynamics of the playing XI, which were apparently the possible reasons which was not acceptable to the franchise.
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The shake-up of things started after a review of the season's performance in July. RR won only four out of the 15 games, but some of those losses were pretty close ones, which ideally RR should have won. The team was hampered by Samson missing a few games due to injury, while Dravid was also recovering from a foot injury.
Currently, Vikram Rathour (batting coach) is set to continue with the Royals. The other coaching members, Shane Bond (bowling coach), Sairaj Bahutule (spin bowling coach), and Dishant Yagnik (fielding coach), are set to stay as of now. Currently, Manoj Badale has taken charge of the Royals and is seemingly taking all leadership roles out of India to London. Royals, who were always praised for bringing young Indian talent like Samson, Jaiswal, and now Vaibhav Suryavanshi, hired Dravid as the head coach to continue this trend.
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However, his sudden exit and the departure of McCrum leave several questions unanswered. Also, Samson will stay is another question which is yet to be answered by the Royals.
