New Delhi: Several foreign cricketers in Kolkata Knight Riders were frustrated by head coach Chandrakant Pandit's "militant" style of functioning during the previous edition of the IPL, former South Africa and Namibia all-rounder David Wiese, who played for the franchise last year, has claimed.
The 38-year-old all-rounder, who played three IPL games for KKR in 2023, said foreign cricketers weren't happy at being tutored on how to behave or what to wear by the coach.
"He (Pandit) is known in India as a very militant type of coach. He is very strict, very disciplinarian that type of stuff. Sometimes in franchise cricket, when you have overseas guys, who've played all over the world, they don't need anyone coming and telling them how they need to behave, what they need to wear and what they need to do the whole time. So, that was tough," said Wiese on the podcast 'Hitman for Hire: A year in the life of a franchise cricketer' recently.
Pandit took charge as KKR's head coach after New Zealander Brendon McCullum quit the job in 2022. The much-admired coach, who played five Tests for India, coached Vidarbha to successive Ranji Trophy titles in in 2018 and 2019. He later guided Madhya Pradesh to its maiden Ranji title in 2022.
Wiese, who was part of the Namibia side that played the 2022 T20 World Cup, said he saw players unhappy with Pandit's style of coaching. "...he liked to do things a certain way and that didn't sit well with certain players. It caused a little bit of tension in the changing room.
"Guys were frustrated, there was a lot that changed over the last couple of years (when McCullum was around) and the new coach brought in some new things that he though would bring success to us," Wiese, who first played the IPL in 2015, said. Wiese added he wasn't too bothered about the environment around him.
"I'm like 'listen it's your circus, you run the show. End of the day, I am here just to play. If you tell me to do this, I'll do it'. I'm not the guy who's going to bump heads or anything. But there are certain players who are a bit more stubborn than me," he said.
Two-time champions KKR had a disappointing season last year finishing seventh and Wiese said he felt frustrated because he didn't get more opportunities to showcase his talent.
"...that frustration was more because of the fact that I played those games. I didn't really get the opportunity to do much. I did hit a couple of sixes but didn't really get the opportunity to showcase my skills there, and never got picked again in the team that was struggling with players," he added.
"I think if I hadn't played a single game it would've been fine but the fact that I played three games, had a taste, did relatively well and then didn't get another chance in a team that is struggling, that was the more frustrating part." Wiese said he didn't get the same vibe in IPL 2023, which he got in his first year in the tournament in 2015.
"I don't know if that's because Ive played in every single franchise tournament now. Honestly, it felt like just another franchise tournament. It didn't have the hyped feeling."
Wiese was also uncomfortable with some of the dressing room celebratory, including smudging faces with cake on someone's birthdays. He called it stupid and annoying.
"In India, the tradition is like that you cut the cake and then somebody feeds it to you and then you feed it to everybody else. Then somewhere through that they'll put a little smudge on your face and then some guy decided, it's going to be funny just smash cake in your face. It's such a nice cake, why go out and make nice cake then smash it all over the face... it's almost inedible. It's really annoying."
"They felt that I wasn't too keen on it so they came to me and said, 'it's your birthday, there's a cake waiting for you, do you want (it) to (be) smashed in your face or you don't want to be that guy'. I said 'do what you've got to do, just keep it out of my hair, I took the cake in my ear.. (they) took a piece and shoved it in my ear. It's such a stupid tradition, but it is what it is," he added.
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