Kolkata, August 08: In a pre-season training, players of the Kolkata Knight Riders will assemble at the Eden Gardens next week even as they are yet to announce the names of the coach and captain.
The Knight Riders captain in the inaugural edition, Sourav Ganguly, who is expected to be re-instated to the top post, will attend the camp along with his Bengal teammates Laxmi Ratan Shukla and Wriddhiman Saha to train under former Team India physio Andrew Leipus.
“It’s not a camp actually…rather it’s a pre-season training to check the players’ fitness,” KKR CEO Joy Bhattacharya told PTI.
Asked who will attend the training, Bhattcharya said the players who are available will take part.
Away from fixed fitness regimes after quitting international cricket, Ganguly has begun training at Eden Gardens today.
The Knight Riders had a marathon meeting at owner Shah Rukh Khan’s residence in Mumbai on August 4, although the decision on naming their new captain and coach did not come.
According to team sources, the Knight Riders management were scanning a list of candidates for the job of the coach with New Zelander John Wright appearing to be the front runner.
“The fact that the Wright-Ganguly combination did wonders for Team India when they made the ICC World Cup final in 2003 is a positive aspect in their favour,” said the source.
There is also speculation of former coach of Pakistan Richard Pybus becoming coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders.
The team think-tank has already made it clear that Ganguly will continue to play a major role.
Knight Riders had finished last in the second edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in South Africa earlier this year after the franchise was rocked by the controversial multiple captaincy theory by John Buchanan who later had to part ways with the Shah Rukh-owned side.
—–PTI