Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) announced the name of recently retired Brendon McCullum as their new head coach for the next edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2020. McCullum will replace Jacques Kallis who was in the role since October, 2015.

McCullum has been very closely associated with KKR as a player first from 2008 to 2010 and again from 2012-2013 and was also part of the IPL winning squad in 2012.

He was also part of the Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) squad in the CPL, from 2016-2018, during which TKR won back-to-back championships in 2017 & 2018.

“It’s a great honour to take on this responsibility. The Kolkata Knight Rider franchises in IPL and CPL have become iconic and have set the standard in franchise cricket. We have fantastic squads in both KKR & TKR and I along with the support staff will be looking to build on the successes both franchises have enjoyed.” McCullum said in a statement.

KKR CEO Venky Mysore said, “Brendon has been an integral part of the Knight Riders family for a long time. His leadership qualities, honesty, positive & aggressive style, combined with his natural ability to bring the best out of the teams he has been part of makes him ideally suited to lead KKR & TKR as a Head Coach.”

(With PTI inputs)