3 great cricketers who failed as coaches in the IPL ft. Brian Lara
SunRisers Hyderabad replaced Brian Lara with Daniel Vettori as the head coach after a wooden-spoon finish in IPL 2023.
One of the highest run-scorers in Tests and a legend of the game, Lara took over the job from Tom Moody without much coaching experience behind him.
He had a well-balanced team at his disposal, full of proven overseas performers and a solid Indian core. The West Indian also had equally-legendary names Dale Steyn and Muttiah Muralitharan as part of his staff.
However, constant chopping and changing of the teams, struggling senior players, and a lack of role clarity cost them and they could only win four of their 14 matches. Lara became another name in the list of superstar international cricketers to have struggled as a coach in the IPL.
Here are three more such names:
#3 Shaun Pollock
Shaun Pollock shone in IPL 2008 as Mumbai Indians' crisis man and the stand-in captain for the stand-in captain. The original skipper, Sachin Tendulkar, was injured before the season started while his replacement Harbhajan Singh was suspended for slapping Sreesanth during a league game.
Pollock came in and the team won six off six matches before narrowly missing out on the qualifiers. One of the most successful South African pacers, Pollock retired soon after the season and took over as MI's head coach in 2009. He replaced Lalchand Rajput, India's manager when they won the 2007 T20 World Cup.
IPL 2009 was shifted to his home country due to elections in India as well. But Mumbai struggled after a good start, only winning five of their 14 matches, and finished seventh.
They were over-dependent on Sachin Tendulkar, JP Duminy, and Lasith Malinga as youngsters and most of the Indian core struggled for consistency.
#2 Gary Kirsten
Another South African great, Gary Kirsten helped India win the 2011 ODI World Cup and was the mentor of the now-defunct Gujarat Titans in their title win and runners-up finish in the previous two seasons with Ashish Nehra as the head coach.
However, he never quite cracked the job of head coach in the IPL. He coached Delhi Capitals in 2014 and 2015 but the team finished last and second-last.
Kirsten was appointed the batting coach of Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2018 and took over as head coach in 2019 but the team finished sixth finish and last, respectively.
#1 Anil Kumble
Anil Kumble took over as Punjab Kings (then Kings XI Punjab) in 2020 after a successful but controversially-ending stint with Team India.
He was considered a hard taskmaster but a shrewd tactician and it was hoped that those qualities would help steady the ship for a team that hadn't finished highest than fifth in the past five years.
However, his partnership with KL Rahul for the first two years and then with Mayank Agarwal in 2022, didn't work. The team finished sixth for three straight seasons. There were issues with team balance, Rahul not being at his expressive best, and the team lost a lot of matches from winnable positions.
Although he was eventually removed from the job in IPL 2023 and replaced by Trevor Bayliss, the duo didn't do any better as the Kings finished eighth.