Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore on Friday replaced Gary Kirsten with Australia’s Simon Katich as head coach of the team.
They also appointed fomer New Zealand and Kings XI Punjab coach Mike Hesson as Director of Cricket Operations, a newly-created post for the team. Bowling coach Ashish Nehra was also let go.
RCB, who have never won the IPL title despite featuring in all 12 seasons of the T20 competition, finished last on the points table this year. Kirsten, who coached India in their successful 2011 World Cup campaign, was expected to turn the team’s fortunes around but things didn’t go as planned for the South African.
“We believe that Mike’s extensive experience in building strong teams along with Simon’s powerful cricket experience will help us create a winning culture,” RCB chairman Sanjeev Churiwala was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
Australia’s Katich has previously been assistant coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders. He will be helped by New Zealand’s Hesson, who missed out on becoming the Indian cricket team’s coach recently.
Apart from being runners-up in 2009, ‘11 and ‘16, RCB have consistently finished in the bottom half of the points table. Even with Virat Kohli as captain since 2013, the men in red have yet to lay their hands on the trophy.