Dubai: The second season of the Indian Premier League, apart from living up to its hype, is also turning out to be a fertile breeding ground for strategising for the Twenty-20 World Cup in England next month.
Andy Moles, the New Zealand coach, has stationed himself in South Africa as part of the Kolkata Knight Riders team as an 'observer' - keeping a close watch on the gameplan of various teams as he plans on simulating the same for the Black Caps.
According to KKR team management, Moles approached Brendon McCullum to find out if there was any way he could be part of them as an observer to learn how they devise plans for the shortest format.
It helped that McCullum was named captain of the Shah Rukh Khan-owned franchise, and he was able to put in a word.
It's of course a different story as McCullum is nowhere near the blazing form that he was in last year and as his team also languishes at the bottom of the table.
"However, we are not paying for his (Moles) stay here, either the New Zealand board or he himself is taking care of it," KKR director Joy Bhattacharya told Gulf News.
The franchise, incidentally, had been the butt of lot of media sarcasm for nursing the biggest support staff in the league.
It was in the opening game last season that McCullum set the IPL on fire with a breathtaking 158 against Bangalore Royal Challengers - an innings which is still the highest score in the shortest format of the game.
His dip in form - 31 runs from the first six games with a top score of 21 - has not helped the team's cause in any way, which now has to cope with the loss of Chris Gayle from today's match.
"It is just a confidence thing. He (McCullum) is a very proud player, combative, who likes to meet things upfront. But so far he has not got in. He has been getting out in the second over at best.
"He needs to spend a little time in the middle. He is just one innings away from being in form. His form is not a huge concern for me," Moles said, on the IPL website.
The New Zealand coach said: "Well, I have seen Brendon work very hard. I can't see the captaincy putting pressure on him at all. He has taken the form loss badly. He is a great cricketer, who wants to do well. He enjoys [the] captaincy and likes to get the best out of the youngsters in the side. I don't think captaincy is affecting his form."
The New Zealand coach has, however, outlined one flaw that may have crept into the Kolkata Knight Riders captain's batting.
"He just needs to make sure he keeps his shape when he hits the ball and just needs to ensure that he is still when he is hitting the ball, we were working on that," he said.
