MUMBAI: Two-time IPL champions, Kolkata Knight Riders announced on Wednesday the launch of ‘KKR Academy’, which will aim at nurturing talent and provide world-class coaching and training facilities to the team’s players during the off season.
The KKR Academy is hosting its first camp at the Just Cricket Indoor Stadium in Bengaluru, which began on Monday.
Venky Mysore, CEO and MD of KKR said that the franchise prides itself on professionalism and aiding its players and coaches at every step, making the creation of this academy a foregone conclusion.
“The idea of “KKR Academy” has been part of our vision, with a view to helping our cricketers improve their skills and fitness as well as grooming talent and providing them a perfect platform to showcase their skills. This is another step in the professionalisation of the Knight Riders franchise.”, Mysore said.
He also confirmed that Abhishek Nayar, the former Mumbai player who has featured in 3 ODIs for India, as the chief coach and mentor of the academy.
“Abhishek’s credentials as a cricketer and his deep desire & passion to help cricketers become better is very well known. We felt that he’s ideally suited to lead this initiative.”, he added.
Nayar expressed delight at his appointment and credited Mysore and KKR captain Dinesh Karthik, to bear fruit to the academy, something which no other IPL team have done so far.
“I am honoured to have been given the role of managing the KKR Academy. KKR has a highly talented set of boys and with this kind of nurturing in the off-season I am sure they will become better cricketers. I am also thankful to the KKR management for investing in the future of these promising cricketers.”, Nayar said.
“It’s something I love doing – working with young talent. Now that I’ve got the opportunity to do that, I am loving it.”
“Post the IPL season, I had a meeting with Venky Sir (Venky Mysore, CEO and MD of KKR), to discuss the ways forward, and he was very keen on starting something where we can help the cricketers throughout (the year).
“A lot of times, what happens is that we come into the IPL and pick players based on their talent. Whether or not they do well depends on their own preparations, so we thought as to what we can do to affect that – to find a change where we can add a little more value to a cricketer’s career and not just come and practice, do well in the IPL, and go away.
“The idea was to have a journey with them wherein you’re taking care of them, understanding them, their problems, and the small difficulties they face through a season. Not only in the IPL, but in the Ranji trophy or in (domestic) T20s, basically everything that comprises the overall growth of a cricketer.
“Venky Sir and Dinesh (Karthik) were both keen on doing something that no one has ever done – to come up and start something very unique, where we are trying to help the cricketers all through the season. To follow them, follow their progress, do whatever we can to help them. If they need us at their home venues, we are willing to travel with them, and all such sort of things. It was just a great thought by Venky Sir.”, he added.
At the start of this year’s IPL, Nayar was added into the team’s support staff, having also co-incidentally coached Karthik personally in the past. Karthik has been effusive in his praise for Nayar as well, crediting him for his resurgence as a cricketer after being dropped from the Indian team two years ago.
The move is likely to give his coaching aspirations a boost, after being dropped from Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy team last season.
The camp will end on July 21 and at present it is young players such as Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Apoorv Wankhade and Rinku Singh who are making the most of it. They will joined by another group of players soon. The domestic season has been kept in mind when the dates were worked out.
“I’m pretty confident it will (help the players in the upcoming season),” Nayar continued.
“Like I said, it’s not about this camp, it’s (what we do) through the season. It’s not a one-day wonder kind of a thing. It’s something we’re going to do over and over and over again. So in this camp, we’re trying to assess the players. We’re in talks with them, we are trying to understand what they require, understand what’s stopping them from being the best that they can be.”
KKR’s Mumbai connection was extended as Omkar Salvi, who has been Mumbai’s bowling coach from 2014-2017 will be serving in the same capacity for the KKR academy.
Reportedly, Nayar and Salvi were in the fray for top coaching opportunities in Puducherry and Mumbai respectively. It is yet to be announced whether they will be permitted to coach other teams.
