Chandrakant Pandit (L) and Andre Russell© X (formerly Twitter)
Senior all-rounder Andre Russell on Thursday supported Kolkata Knight Riders’ head coach Chandrakant Pandit, whose coaching style was termed “militant” by former KKR all-rounder David Wiese. Wiese, who now plies his trade for Namibia, claimed that many foreign players in the roster of KKR were frustrated by Pandit’s tough style of functioning during last year’s IPL. However, Jamaican Russell, an integral part of KKR’s core group, sounded different. “We’ve been working with him from last year. I think when you’re working with a coach for the first time, you have to make sure that you adjust to their philosophy. There have to be rules. We are professionals. So, we don’t complain,” said Russell during the pre-match press meet.
“I try to do the best for this franchise. He’s been doing an amazing job, and we’ve gotten coming back as well,” he added.
Pandit, who is known as a disciplinarian, had taken over as KKR coach ahead of IPL 2022 after Brendon McCullum accepted England’s head coach job.
“He (Pandit) is known in India as a very militant type of coach. He is very strict, very disciplinarian that type of stuff.
“Sometimes in franchise cricket, when you have overseas guys, who’ve played all over the world, they don’t need anyone coming and telling them how they need to behave, what they need to wear and what they need to do the whole time.
“So, that was tough,” said Wiese on the podcast ‘Hitman for Hire: A year in the life of a franchise cricketer’ recently.
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