Jayawardene Steps Down As Mumbai Indians Head Coach After A Decade

Mahela Jayawardene has stepped down as Mumbai Indians head coach. The franchise confirmed it in a press release on Saturday and called it the close of a decade-long association. He leaves the job with three IPL titles. No successor was named. The decision becomes public with IPL 2027 squad and staff planning already under way.

Two stints, ten years

Jayawardene coached the side across two separate spells. The first ran from 2017 to 2022. He came back for the 2024 season and stayed through 2026. Mumbai Indians won three IPL titles while he held the head coach role.

Between the two spells he moved into a wider job. From 2022 he served as global head of performance, a role that covered the owners' teams outside India as well as the IPL side. Mumbai Indians Women, MI New York and MI Emirates each won a title in that period.

• Head coach, first spell: 2017 to 2022
• Global head of performance: from 2022
• Head coach, second spell: 2024 to 2026
• IPL titles as head coach: three

The statements from both sides

Jayawardene kept his statement short. "Mumbai Indians has been a very special part of my journey for over a decade now," he said. He added that the franchise would always carry a special place in his heart.

Nita Ambani responded for the owners. "Mahela has made a significant contribution to Mumbai Indians over the years," she said. Neither statement gave a reason for the timing. Neither mentioned where he goes next.

An open seat in a busy market

The calendar is the awkward part. Franchises are deep into staffing and squad work for IPL 2027. A head coach normally sits in those conversations. Mumbai Indians will run the rest of that process without one in place, or will have to fill the job quickly.

Other dugouts have been rebuilt around them. Sourav Ganguly took over as Delhi Capitals head coach earlier this month. The same franchise added Chaminda Vaas as fast bowling coach on Saturday. The pool of senior coaches with IPL experience is thinner than it looks.

Mumbai Indians also sit inside a structure most rivals do not have. The owners run teams in three competitions beyond the IPL. Jayawardene held the performance brief across all of them from 2022. That is a wider brief than a dugout job alone.

The job that is actually vacant

The press release covers the head coach role. It does not mention the global performance job he has held since 2022. The franchise did not say whether that second role ends too. So the vacancy on the table, for now, is the IPL dugout alone.

The statement gave no timetable for an appointment.