Former South Africa all-rounder Lance Klusener will reach Agartala on Saturday to take over as the consultant of Tripura for the upcoming domestic season.
According to Timir Chanda, the Vice-president of Tripura Cricket Association, the seasoned coach will work for a total of 100 days in the season and will work with all the teams, and not restrict himself to the Ranji Trophy squad.
“We had put up an advertisement on our website a few weeks ago for the job, and Lance had applied for the role along with Dav Whatmore. Though Dav later pulled out due to family commitments, Lance was keen on taking up the offer,” Chanda told Sportstar.
The 51-year-old Klusener was a member of the South Africa team that reached the final of the 1999 ODI World Cup before losing to Australia, and after retiring from international cricket, he has worked with Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, and several other franchises as a coach.
A few years ago, he was also part of the Tamil Nadu Premier League as one of the coaches of a franchise.
“Lance’s experience will help our cricketers immensely. It’s a matter of pride for us to have someone of his stature coming in as the consultant of Tripura,” Chanda said.
Klusener’s manager Kaustuv Lahiri confirmed the development. “Lance has agreed to take up the role of a consultant and will spend a total of 100 days with the Tripura team. He will come in initially for a 20-day camp in Agartala and will follow it up with more visits later on,” Lahiri said.
Klusener, who has featured in 49 Tests and 171 ODIs for South Africa between 1996 and 2004, will reach Kolkata on Friday and travel to Agartala the next day.
He is expected to meet India international Wriddhiman Saha, who captained Tripura last season and has renewed his contract for another season. “We have already re-signed Wriddhi and Sudip Chatterjee for the forthcoming season. We will need to appoint a coach who will work closely with Lance, so we will discuss that with Wriddhi and others and then take a decision,” Chanda said.
Last season, Tripura finished sixth in the Elite Group D with 11 points from seven outings.
Meanwhile, the association is set to appoint Rajarshi Chaudhuri, a former Tripura and East Zone cricketer, as the coach of the U-16 team.
The 51-year-old Chaudhuri is based in the UK and is an ECB level-4 coach, who scored 1,288 runs from 25 first-class games for Tripura. After moving to the UK, he also played in New Zealand, South Africa and Bangladesh and is also an ECB Level 2 umpire.
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