The newly inducted IPL franchise Lucknow has been making some early moves as they announced another signing in form of Gautam Gambhir as a mentor for the franchise. The team owner Sanjiv Goenka called this move towards building an inclusive team environment.
Earlier the franchise also signed Andy Flower as their head coach. The former Zimbabwe wicketkeeper has quite a reputation as a coach, coaching in various franchise tournaments around the world.
The team owner Sanjiv Goenka has some high ambitions to work with a two-time IPL winning captain as the franchise would like to offer Gautam Gambhir an advisory.
“Gautam will primarily have a motivational role to play. He will also help to create a blueprint for the franchise in the long term. We wanted to have people with a proven track record of success. Gautam has also successfully groomed a generation of youngsters for KKR and that went in his favour.” Sanjiv Goenka told in an interview with TOI.
“Gautam has an image of being a totally non-partisan leader with a focus on results. Look at what he did for KKR. Fundamentally we would like the dressing room to be geared towards a culture of performance.” he added further.
“The biggest inspiration for me is Mumbai Indians”- Sanjiv Goenka
Notable that the RPSP Group has been involved with IPL for two years. The team also finished as runners-up in 2017, losing a nail-biting contest against Mumbai Indians in the final. However, the owner believes that it’s totally different thing now.
“That was just a short two-year thing. We were impatient and left many things unfinished. This (Lucknow) is oriented towards the long term as not many franchises have come in and succeeded in the first year itself.”
Goenka is quite impressed with five-time IPL champions as he called the Mumbai franchise their inspiration to follow their template.
However, the owner didn’t speak a word about players’ signings. According to some reports, KL Rahul and Rashid Khan have been approached by the Lucknow franchise but Goenka didn’t want to speak about it yet.
“We have zeroed in on a couple of names. I have to follow the system. I have no role in the rules and regulations. That said, the biggest inspiration for me is Mumbai Indians. What they have achieved, and how they have gone about it, is a template for not only other IPL teams but sports franchises worldwide.” RPSG Group owner said.
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