The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) is one of the most followed IPL franchises and that can be witnessed when the fans turn Eden Gardens into purple and gold in each every home game of KRR. Now in a bid to extend their reach to the aspiring cricketers in India beyond the duration of the tournament, the franchise launched the first of its kind KKR academy on Wednesday and have appointed Abhishek Nayar as the head coach.

Nayar was the member of the staff earlier this year for KKR as he was the consultant for the team and he helped the team to qualify for teh playoffs as well. Abhishek will be assisted by KKR video analyst AR Srikkanth and Omkar Salvi, who recently was with Mumbai as the bowling coach. The reason behind starting the academy is work with the youngsters who prosper during the season and then, unfortunately, fade away before the next season.

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Talking about the academy, Nayar said, “A lot of times, what happens is that we come into the IPL and pick players based on their talent. Whether or not they do well depend on their own preparations, so we thought as to what we can do to affect that – to find a change where we can add a little more value to a cricketer’s career and not just come and practice, do well in the IPL, and go away.”

The two-week camp will get underway in Bengaluru soon and the players like Rinku Singh, Apoorv Wankhede, Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill will be taking part in the same. More cricketers will join soon as they will work on physical conditioning and try to improve their skills in different types of pitches.

Elaborating his idea of the academy, KKR’s CEO, Venky Mysore said, “The idea of KKR Academy has been part of our vision with a view to helping our cricketers improve their skills and fitness as well as grooming talent and providing them with a perfect platform to showcase their skills. This is another step in the professionalization of the Knight Riders franchise.”