A day after being named as captains of MI Emirates and MI Cape Town teams in inaugural seasons of ILT20 and SA20 respectively, Kieron Pollard and Rashid Khan have expressed excitement on being handed leadership duties ahead of both tournaments starting in January next year.
Pollard-led MI Emirates, will feature T20 stars like Dwayne Bravo, Nicholas Pooran, Trent Boult, and Imran Tahir. They will debut in the ILT20, set to begin on January 13 and end on February 12, with 34 matches to be played across three venues in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah.
“I’m very excited about this opportunity to be the Captain of a new team. As the one leading MI Emirates I hope to share my experience and skills and help build a team that plays to win. MI is about passion, about giving cricket your all. For me 2023 is all about MI Emirates,” said Pollard in an official update by the franchise, who also own Mumbai Indians team in IPL.
Pollard will work in tandem with MI Emirates head coach Shane Bond, who has been Mumbai Indians’ bowling coach since 2015. The team also has Parthiv Patel as batting coach, R Vinay Kumar as bowling coach and James Franklin as fielding coach, with Robin Singh being the general manager of cricket.
The Rashid-captained MI Cape Town comprises of a solid local South African core of Kagiso Rabada, Dewald Brevis, Rassie van der Dussen, along with international stars like Jofra Archer, Sam Curran and Liam Livingstone. They will also play in the opening game of SA20 on January 10 against Paarl Royals.
“I’m honoured to be the Captain of MI Cape Town and thank the MI management for showing their faith in me. South Africa is a cricket loving country and I can’t wait to lead such a talented team in front of the MI Cape Town fans. I shall do my very best to develop MI Cape Town into a team that plays with belief and gives MI fans every reason to celebrate,” stated Rashid.
MI Cape Town will have Simon Katich as the head coach. Katich will be assisted by Hashim Amla as the batting coach, while Robin Peterson will be the side’s general manager. James Pamment will take charge as fielding coach, a role which he will do with Mumbai Indians in the IPL.
Rashid, the leg-spin all-rounder, had quit as captain of Afghanistan shortly after T20 World Cup 2021 was announced, being at the helm for only two months.
Pollard, the former West Indies captain in ODIs and T20Is, had earlier announced that he had retired from the IPL as a player after 13 years to be the batting coach of five-time IPL winning team Mumbai Indians in IPL 2023.
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