KKR Rope In Services of New Zealand’s Olympic Sprinter Chris Donaldson

Aug 25, 2020 at 3:54 PM

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KKR Rope In Services of New Zealand’s Olympic Sprinter Chris Donaldson

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) an IPL franchise had won coveted IPL trophy in 2012 and 2014 under the captaincy of former Indian opener, Gautam Gambhir. However, it has failed to repeat the performances since then but has acquired the services of Chris Donaldson, who is a New Zealand Olympic sprinter and also the son of film director –Roger Donaldson.

Pertinently, Chris has represented his country at 1996 and 2000 Summer Olympics and 1998 and 2006 Commonwealth Games.

He is currently the strength and conditioning coach of New Zealand cricket team but has come on board as Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) strength and conditioning coach for the upcoming edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020.

Chris was part of the 4x100m relay team that competed at Sydney clocking 38.99 besides his personal bests of clocking 20.42 at 200m on 1997 at Melbourne and 10.17 at 100m on 1998 at Kuala Lumpur and he also oversaw the Black Caps New Zealand national team for eight years.

chris donaldson
Chris Donaldson

KKR’s Chris Donaldson Provides Players With Special Workouts: Brendon McCullum

Chris Donaldson is making sure that all the KKR players remain in shape and also provides them by his special “bedroom-workout routine” tips managed through group video calls.

“I can’t ask the players to do what I can’t do, right? So while I can’t do the exercises as well as them, I certainly try to put in an effort,” KKR head coach Brendon McCullum said on their official website on Monday.

“I’ve also heard that the shirts this year – practice shirts and coach’s shirts – are going to be very, very tight. So, I need to make sure that I am not too fat as we get into the season,” the former New Zealand skipper quipped.

He said that the cricketers are getting acquainted with the new member on board. The new member Chris Donaldson has given some hard workouts following which the cricketers are fatigued and waking up with sore bodies.

“The guys are now getting to know him. There have been some unbelievable workouts he has given everyone to do. They are hard, and if you haven’t worked out for a while, you can’t do it.”

Brendon McCullum, Shah Rukh Khan, Sourav Ganguly
Brendon McCullum. Image Credit: BCCI/IPL.

“Sore bodies for a couple of days…But it’s amazing and very, very helpful for all the boys at this time of staying indoors.”

Head coach Brendon McCullum played for KKR and was a former skipper of New Zealand. He played for KKR in two short stints coming in 2008-2010 and 2012-2013 and also played for CSK in 2014-2015, Gujarat Lions in 2016-2017 and RCB in 2018 before retiring from all forms of cricket in 2019. He was the first batsman to score a century in IPL as in the inaugural year 2008’s the very first game he scored 158 and remained unbeaten against RCB.

KKR’s Chris Donaldson Is An Absolute Professional: Kyle Mills

Kyle Mills who is also bowling coach of KKR had a similar view about Chris Donaldson’s drills as he is more professional and his inclusion gives KKR a new dimension.

Kyle Mills, KKR
Kyle Mills, KKR
Credits – AFP

“You spend a lot of time trying to catch him and you never will. He is an amazing person and he is an absolute professional. I think it’s going to be a big feather in our cap to have him on board.”

Both Brendon McCullum and Kyle Mills are former New Zealand wicket-keeper batsman and pacer respectively which has probably helped them in selecting country-mate Chris Donaldson.

Kyle Mills, on the other hand, represented New Zealand from 2001 to 2015 featuring in 19 Tests, 170 ODIs and 42 T20Is where he picked up 44,240 and 43 wickets respectively. He did not participate in IPL as a bowler.

The IPL 2020 gets underway on September 19 in the Emirates and ends on November 10.

KKR has a bunch of talented batsmen in 2020 in the likes of Eoin Morgan, Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi and the skipper Dinesh Karthik himself. They depend on all-rounder Andre Russell more than anyone else in tight situations.

Their pace bowling line-up is bolstered by the presence of internationals like Pat Cummins, Harry Gurney and Lockie Ferguson while they will depend on spinners Sunil Narine and Kuldeep Yadav to win matches on spinning tracks in UAE.

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