Amidst recent claims made by former South African and Namibian all-rounder David Wiese regarding discontent among overseas cricketers with Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) coaching approach under Chandrakant Pandit, star all-rounder Andre Russell has stepped forward to dismiss these allegations. Wiese, who had a brief stint with KKR last season, voiced concerns about the players feeling frustrated with what he described as Pandit’s ‘militant’ coaching style, particularly regarding directives on behaviour and attire.
“He (Pandit) is known in India as a very militant type of coach. He is very strict, very disciplinarian and that type of stuff,” Wiese had said on the podcast ‘Hitman for Hire: A year in the life of a franchise cricketer’ recently.
“Sometimes in franchise cricket, when you have overseas guys, who’ve played all over the world, they don’t need anyone coming and telling them how they need to behave, what they need to wear and what they need to do the whole time. So, that was tough.”
Asked for a reaction on Thursday, ahead of KKR’s away match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Russell however, said players were happy with Pandit.
“Working with him from last year, we got to know the type of person he is and that made things a lot easier for us,” said the Jamaican.
“When you work with a coach in the first year, you have to make sure you have to trust their philosophy…we have to do certain things as professionals. It’s been going good.”
Pandit’s appointment as Kolkata Knight Riders’ head coach in 2023, succeeding Brendon McCullum, was met with high expectations given his impressive track record in domestic cricket. Renowned for guiding Madhya Pradesh to a Ranji Trophy triumph and steering Vidarbha to consecutive titles in 2018 and 2019, Pandit’s coaching acumen garnered significant attention.
Knight Riders face RCB
KKR had a winning start to the season last week when the side registered a narrow four-run win in a high-scoring thriller against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Kolkata. The side now travels to Bengaluru with the aim of becoming the first to achieve an away win this season.
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