New Delhi: Gary Kirsten, the South African coach who oversaw India's march to World Cup glory in 2011, has been named head coach of the Delhi Daredevils Indian Premier League team.
Despite boasting many world class players, the Delhi Daredevils franchise has underachieved in the IPL. This year, the sixth edition of the league, the team finished bottom of the table. It was also at the bottom in 2011 and failed to qualify for the knockout stages in 2010.
Kirsten is popular and highly respected in India after overseeing the national team's triumphant World Cup campaign in 2011. He bowed out of India following that win, handing over the reins to Duncan Fletcher.
Kirsten's reputation was further bolstered after Fletcher's tenure started with a poor run of results for the Indian team. The new coach, however, wasn't helped by the fact that several top players ruled themselves out of a tour of the West Indies soon after the World Cup as they wanted time to rest.
The demands of coaching an IPL team are very different from the India coaching job. For one, the IPL is a two-month Twenty20 slog, rather than a varied, lengthy and tour-filled season of Test cricket, One-Day Internationals and T20s.
The nature of the IPL means that Kirsten will also be in charge of a multinational team of high-earning cricket superstars. In addition to Pietersen, the Delhi Daredevils has top players such as Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene, Australia's David Warner, South Africa's Morne Morkel and Indian stars such as Irfan Pathan and Virender Sehwag.
Kirsten's return to India reunites him with fellow South African Eric Simons, who was bowling coach of the Indian team that won the World Cup. India won the tournament only once before, in the U.K. in 1983.
