CHANGE OF GUARD

Bringing to an end to long and string stretching speculations, Dr Vijay Mallya, owner of the Royal Challengers Bangalore team named England’s Kevin Pietersen as skipper for the second edition of the Indian Premier League that is slated to begin on April 10.

Pietersen will lead the team until the end of April after which he will return to do duty for his country and South Africa’s Jacques Kallis will take over for the rest of the tournament. With six international players having captaincy experience in the RCB line-up, Dr Mallya said, “After long and decisive consultations with icon player Rahul Dravid the decision to make Pietersen captain was taken.” The names of former Indian skipper Anil Kumble and Karnataka skipper Robin Uthappa did the rounds and many backed a Bangalorean to lead the local team if it was not to be Rahul.



It is also likely that Rahul Dravid could be unavailable as his wife is expecting the couple’s second child and the star middle order Indian batsman would like to be by his wife at that moment.

Pietersen, in a statement, said, “It is indeed a great privilege and honor to be asked to take over the captaincy from such a great player and friend, Rahul Dravid. Rahul has an incredible cricketing brain and a vast amount of experience in playing the sport at the highest level.”

The team, which boasts of a plethora of young Indian players, wears a more balanced look compared to the inaugural year when they were tagged “a Test team”. Talking of cheerleaders, Mallya said, “Cheerleaders don’t win matches, players do.” He went on to add, “The cheerleaders contributed significantly overall in portraying the Indian Premier League worldwide”.

“We will do whatever it takes to market RCB as a brand and if we feel that cheerleaders are necessary, and then it will be done.” “We (RCB) felt it necessary to sign and promote young Indian players who could benefit from the experienced international players in the team. Along with Brijesh Patel (CEO) and Ray Jennings (Coach) Royal Challengers are in really good shape now,” ended Mallya.

VENKY LEAVES RCB


In a major change, Indian bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad will not be seen with the Royal Challengers team. The former Indian seamer has signed up to be the bowling coach of Chennai Super Kings and his place in the RCB will be taken up by Eric Symonds from South Africa and Grant Morgan, also a South African, will be the batting coach who will join Jennings and Bash Naidoo (High Performance coach) both from South Africa.