AFTER SUCCESSFULLY COACHING BANGLADESH, former Zimbabwe cricketer Heath Streak is now all set to join the Gujarat Lions camp as a bowling coach for IPL-9. The Rajkot franchise has shown great interest in roping the former all-rounder into their scheme of things and now Streak is on the verge of completing the final procedure before he starts his stint with the Lions.
As reported by Firstpost, Streak said,
"It's very exciting for me and am excited to work alongside Brad Hodge and team members such as Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, (James) Faulkner, (Dwayne) Bravo, Dale Steyn. We've also got some exciting guys in Praveen Kumar, (Dhawal) Kulkarni and Pravin Tambe. These are some really good guys that I am looking forward to working with. I hope we can bring some success to Gujarat and make it difficult for BCCI to release them after the two years. That's the goal. The franchise is there for two years and we want to be as successful as we can over that two-year period.”
Streak who was playing the Masters Champions League (MCL) in the UAE was keeping a regular track of the player auction in Bangalore a week ago. The Zimbabwean also showed keen interest in selection of players and was involved with the team management in discussing strategy.
"I was following the live updates my mobile phone and keeping in touch with our guys. We had a lot of discussions prior to the auctions in terms of who we will be targeting. But in auctions, it doesn't always go 100 percent the way you want, so you have to have plan B and C sometimes for certain positions.”
The Zimbabwean who is on a contract with Bangladesh cricket as a bowling coach feels that the Lions have formed a formidable, balanced team for the upcoming season of IPL.
"But from the feedback that I've had from the guys, they are very excited. We've got a very good group. I think some of our Indian players are very exciting. The key part to success in the IPL is having strong domestic players and I think we've definitely ticked that box. But we've got to turn that into results. Having the guys who've done it before is one thing but we've to make sure we create an environment where they can go out, enjoy themselves, perform and turn that ability into a result in IPL 2016," Streak added.”