Sport | Cricket
Ganguly-led Kolkata unveil coach Buchanan
Former Australia coach John Buchanan will link up with old adversary Sourav Ganguly after signing up with the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) on Tuesday.
- Agencies
- Published: 23:41 March 11, 2008
Kolkata; Sydney: Former Australia coach John Buchanan will link up with old adversary Sourav Ganguly after signing up with the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) on Tuesday.
Buchanan, who guided Australia to two World Cup titles in 2003 and 2007, before stepping down in April last year, was unveiled as coach of the Ganguly-led Kolkata Night Riders team in the eight-team franchise Twenty20 league due to start on April 18.
Ganguly dealt Buchanan's Australia a surprise defeat when he captained India to a memorable comeback test series win in 2001.
The Kolkata Knight Riders were bought for $75.09 million by a consortium that includes Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan.
Another 18 players were added in a second and final auction on Tuesday.
"It's a good opportunity for the Indian players and young aspirants to work and gain experience from the world's top players," Buchanan said.
Meanwhile, Cricket Australia refused to say whether players would be free to take part in the Indian Premier League Tuesday, despite scrapping a tour to Pakistan that clashed with the competition.
The Pakistan tour had been due to run until late April, which would have overlapped with the April 18 start of the IPL.
While its delay appeared to free up Test stars with lucrative IPL contracts such as Andrew Symonds and Ricky Ponting to participate in the Twenty20 competition, Cricket Australia (CA) chief executive James Sutherland was non-committal.
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