Knight Riders pin hopes on 'Pakistan factor'
Need to resolve bowling issues ahead of IPL-3
Dubai: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), the Shah Rukh Khan-owned IPL franchise, is banking on the "Pakistan factor" to bail them out of their bowling woes which afflicted them so badly in the second edition of the league earlier this year.
The team finished wooden spooners in the league, losing all but one of their matches.
"If the visa problems are sorted out, we would really like to have Umar Gul back on board as he is possibly the best bowler in the world today at the death overs," one of the top officials of KKR told Gulf News. The Pakistan paceman, like a number of his compatriots including Shahid Afridi, was refused permission by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to take part in IPL-2.
The other Pakistan factor that the KKR management is looking at to "discipline" their bowling is Wasim Akram, the sultan of swing, whom they have formally named as bowling coach along with recent announcements of Dav Whatmore as chief coach and Sourav Ganguly back as captain.
"Much as we would like to have Akram helping the boys full time, there is always a question over his availability," the official said.
Negative press
Suffering from an overdose of negative publicity last time, most of them surrounding the then coach John Buchanan's multiple captaincy theory, the team has decided to keep things extremely low profile for IPL 3 — which could almost be a make-or-break season for them.
During the Champions League T-20 last month, they had conducted a quiet ten-day pre-season training session with the junior players on the roster and even squeezed in a warm-up match against the visiting Sussex team.
While refusing to comment on the management's U-turn on Ganguly (whom they replaced with New Zealand vice-captain Brendon McCullum last time), the official acknowledged that they have a number of players from the now defunct rebel league ICL on the radar.
"We have already signed up a couple of notable performers in the ICL like Eklaq Ahmad and Jignesh, but there could be few more surprises."
