Abu Dhabi: These days at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, what’s creating more buzz than Ricky Ponting’s new innings as Mumbai Indians coach are a set of tiny remote controlled aircraft on the job.
These planes are very much on the lines of the drones - used by the army to intelligence agencies these days. Mumbai Indians are using this to give their fans an insight into the team’s preparations. With a Go-Pro camera fitted on it, the drone captures videos and images of players which are then uploaded on the MI website and the team’s social media like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
It is also learnt that in this IPL, drone is set to replace the spidercam - whose cables as per many cricketers is a distraction - to provide an aerial view of the action in the middle.
The videos generated by these drones have already attracted a lot of viewership on the MI website and their Facebook page, according to Mumbai Indians spokesperson Leeladhar Singh.
“Mumbai Indians have roped in a two-man professional team to handle all the content and we have to be innovative when it comes to fans. They always want to know what’s happening on and off the field and it is a better medium to interact with the fans and keep them updated on the players’ day-to-day activities,” Singh told Gulf News.
Mumbai Indians conducted their first official press conference on Sunday ahead of their campaign against defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens and Ponting, speaking about his new innings as coach said: “The last week’s been terrific. Obviously I have known that I will be the coach of Mumbai Indians for a few months now. I had the time to plan and think about how I wanted to coach the team. I took over when the squad was pretty much established; 15-16 players were retained from last season.”
Ponting went to reveal that it was “fun” to be involved in the players’ auction and now has a new perspective of the game from the outside. “We have a very good squad. We have picked a lot of young Indian talent in our group. My job as coach of MI is to make sure they have got everything exactly the way the captain wants it. When you take a step back from playing, you analyse the game a lot closer, considering a lot of tactical sides to the game. That’s the sort of stuff I have been working to bring in to Mumbai Indians this year.”
Skipper Rohit Sharma said that he had put the disappointment of not bringing back the World Cup behind him and was ready to focus on the task at hand.
“I’m perfectly ready as the IPL schedule was released well in advance. Everyone knew we had to compete soon after spending four months in Australia, so all of us are prepared mentally. I don’t think anyone is mentally tired because ultimately, as players, we want to do well in every tournament we play. It is an opportunity, another big platform for all of us to perform,” said Sharma.
