Chandrakant Pandit joined the Kolkata Knight Riders as a head coach in 2023. Before that season, New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum was the head coach of the Kolkata-based franchise. Many expected a quick turnaround in KKR’s fortunes after Pandit’s arrival because of his coaching style.
Under his guidance, teams have achieved a lot of success at the domestic level. While KKR failed to qualify for the playoffs last year, the Knight Riders are unbeaten in IPL 2024 so far. Some of the released players have complained about the coach’s military style coaching. Here’s a list of four such instances.
1. Narayan Jagadeesan narrated a surprising incident about Chandrakant Pandit
Tamil Nadu-based wicketkeeper batter Narayan Jagadeesan played for KKR last year. During a recent appearance on Tamil commentary, Jagadeesan disclosed how the coach Pandit forced Varun Chakravarthy wear sleeveless t-shirt for practice even though he wished to wear a full-sleeve t-shirt.
“Last year in KKR camp Chandrakant Pandit said that day was sleeveless day and that day Varun wore full sleeves accidentally. Chandrakant Pandit called him aside and tore the shirt to sleeveless with scissors,” Jagadeesan said.
2. David Wiese
Namibian all-rounder David Wiese became the first player from his country to play in the IPL last year. Despite a decent showing, Wiese was released by the Kolkata Knight Riders. Sharing his experience of playing under Pandit, Wiese said that the foreign players were frustrated with how the coach behaved in a military manner with them.
3. Ashutosh Sharma
Yesterday's hero, Ashutosh Sharma about Chandrakant Pandit 🫠🫠 pic.twitter.com/Zy6htvY77j
— Baz_McCullum_42 (@Baz_158_) April 5, 2024
Ashutosh Sharma became popular after he guided Punjab Kings to a famous win against Gujarat Titans last night in Ahmedabad. An old interview of Sharma has surfaced now, where he mentioned how Pandit dropped him from the team just because he didn’t like him.
