On Friday (23rd August), Indian Premier League (IPL) team Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) has announced their new Director of Cricket Operations and head coach. Former New Zealand head coach Mike Hesson is the new Director of Cricket Operations of this team while former Australian cricketer and coach Simon Katich is the new head coach of this team.
According to the reports, Gary Kirsten, the former RCB batting coach and their head coach cum mentor in IPL 2019, has officially ended his journey with this team on Friday. Also, the bowling coach Ashish Nehra finished his tenure with RCB.
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In the press release, RCB has announced that they are moving to a single coach model. They announced the new Director of Cricket Operations and head coach for the next season.
Mike Hesson coached the New Zealand national cricket team from 2012 to 2018. Under his tenure, New Zealand finished as the runners-up in ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.
In IPL 2019, Hesson was the head coach of Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) who finished in the sixth position.
Recently, Hesson fought for the head coach role of the Indian national cricket team. He was very close to beat the present head coach Ravi Shastri.
Meanwhile, the former Australian cricketer and head coach Simon Katich has replaced Gary Kirsten for the head coach role. From 2015 to 2019, Katich was the assistant coach of the IPL side Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Recently, he parted away from the Kolkata franchise.
We are very happy to announce the appointment of Mike Hesson and Simon Katich – RCB Chairman
The RCB chairman Sanjeev Churiwala said, “RCB’s purpose is to be the most trusted, respected and best performing T20 Franchise and hence our constant endeavour is to create a culture of excellence and high performance for every member of the team. To deliver this ambition, we are very happy to announce the appointment of Mike Hesson and Simon Katich. 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.
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“As a result of this restructuring exercise, we will be moving to a single coach model. Consequently, we would like to thank Gary Kirsten and Ashish Nehra for their contribution over the past two seasons. They leave us with a legacy of having given several young players the confidence to show their ability on the highest stage. Everyone at Royal Challengers Bangalore wishes them all the best in the future.”
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RCB is one of the popular teams in IPL history. Since 2011, the Indian captain Virat Kohli leads this team. RCB has played three IPL finals (2009, 2011 and 2016) and one Champions League T20 final (2011), but lost all those finals.
However, RCB has hugely struggled in the last three seasons. RCB were the last-positioned team (eighth position) at the end of the IPL 2019.