The newly minted Lucknow franchise, which is owned by Sanjiv Goenka’s RPSG group, has shortlisted two people in Daniel Vettori and Andy Flower in search to be their head coaches.
Cricbuzz reported that Flower, former Zimbabwe captain and who has coaching experience in international and IPL cricket, and former New Zealand captain and RCB player-coach Daniel Vettori are in a race to become the head coach of the Lucknow franchise, and that Flower is favorite to get the job.
Flower was the assistant coach of the Punjab Kings franchise till recently. Vettori had captained and then coached the Royal Challengers Bangalore for a handful of seasons.
The choice of Flower is for the simple reason that he is known to have a good rapport with KL Rahul, who is tipped to be the team's captain. Having worked at Punjab Kings till recently, Rahul and Flower have good professional chemistry. Apparently, they had also recommended each other's names for their respective positions.
However, given that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has not formally given the go-ahead to the Sanjiv Goenka-owned franchise because of uncertainty surrounding the CVC issue, a formal announcement is awaited.
Along with Goenka, CVC too had won a team in the bidding process on October 25 but their successful bid has run into trouble due to the firm's investment in a betting company in the UK.
As both issues are interlinked, the Lucknow team has been asked not to make any announcement till they hear from the BCCI.
(Cricbuzz inputs)
