Knight Riders hire an English Coach in the hope to change their fortunes!!

IPL 20 20

The Knight Riders and the Mumbai Indians, the 2 teams that were the last ones to finish in the 2nd edition of the IPL, are the first ones to have taken some initiative for the 3rd Season.

While the Knight Riders are all set to bring in 45-year-old Englishman Richard Pybus as coach, the Mumbai Indians have settled in on former Indian all-rounder Robin Singh.

They will be making this announcement formally on Friday. Richard will be replacing the Aussie coach John Buchannan.

Pybus’ scored over the rest of the contenders solely due to his great record as a coach. His impressive CV includes coaching the Pakistan team (1999 World Cup) and South Africa’s domestic team Titans. He even guided the Titans to their domestic Twenty20 title last year.

The other contenders were Sandeep Patil, Wasim Akram, John Wright, Dermot Reeve.

The Mumbai Indians also tinkered with their team composition and have added new personnel. Robin Singh, the former Deccan Chargers coach, has been hired as their new coach, with the former Mumbai all-rounder, Paras Mhambrey being hired in as his deputy.

Robin Singh’s appointment was largely helped by the fact that Sachin Tendulakar gave a very positive feedback on him to the Mumbai Indian Team owners. You can’t ignore the words coming out of the master blasters mouth. Right!!

Shaun Pollock will continue with the mentor’s role, and Jonty Rhodes continues as the fielding coach. So on papers a very strong Coaching team Indeed.

Knight Riders have lost out on hiring Wasim Akram as their bowling consultant. According to BCCI sources, the board, the IPL’s governing council and franchisees have been asked to restrain from hiring/recruiting players/officials/coaches from Pakistan, till further orders from the home ministry.

This also means that the hopes of Pakistani players – who are now World T20 champions – to get to play in IPL-3 or get fee hikes will not become a reality, at least for now. The only teams which have no Pakistani Players are Team Chennai, Kings XI Punjab and Mumbai Indians.