Date:28/06/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/06/28/stories/2003062800642000.htm

Sport - Cricket

King in for Le Roux

By Our Special Correspondent

KOLKATA JUNE 27. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday named Gregory Allen King as the new fitness trainer of the Indian cricket team. The 30-year-old from East London in South Africa was picked from a list of eight after the Board plumbed for continuity with the methods and techniques practised by former trainer Adrian Le Roux, also from South Africa.

The Board president, Mr. Jagmohan Dalmiya, informed newspersons that the BCCI working committee meeting in New Delhi on July 2 would specify the term of King. "I would recommend King be appointed till the next Champions' Trophy in August 2004,'' he said.

The BCCI had received a number of applications for position of fitness trainer after the immensely successful Le Roux opted out in favour of his own country. The Board referred all the applications to John Wright, Andrew Leipus and Le Roux and the trio short listed eight candidates.

Mr. Dalmiya said, "all these eight candidates had extremely good credentials and the selection was difficult. But the three-member panel felt that it was necessary to maintain a continuity with the methods and techniques followed by Le Roux making it easier on the part of the Indian players to accept them.''

King appeared in the final interview here today in which coach Wright, skipper Sourav Ganguly and Mr. Dalmiya were present. "Once we were satisfied with King's ability, he was appointed the new fitness advisor of the Indian team,'' the president said.

King was a fitness trainer and sports scientist with the Border Cricket Board in South Africa since 1998. In addition, he worked as the fielding coach, fast bowler conditioning specialist and rehabilitation specialist with proven skill in sports performance, bio-mechanics, orthopaedic rehabilitation, injury management and ergonomics.

King played cricket for South African universities and other teams from 1996 to 1998. He was also nominated as the Rhodes University Sportsman of the Year in 1998.

King would be taking up his assignment with the Indian team from August 1. He left for Chennai with Wright this evening to attend a coaches' seminar beginning tomorrow and thereafter join Leipus in Bangalore for three days to attend the seminar of fitness trainers and physiotherapists conducted by the National Cricket Academy (NCA).

The Board president also said the recently held Asian Cricket Foundation meeting decided to have a tri-series in Sri Lanka among the three academy teams of Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India in August. Pakistan would host a under-19 quadrangular involving the Big Three of the sub-continent and Bangladesh in September and India would host a tri-nation series in India involving `A' sides of Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India. Mr. Dalmiya said all these tournaments had the sanction of the Central Government.

The Board president said the BCCI would go for a counter claim against the Global Cricket Corporation (GCC). "Our legal experts are working in these lines,'' he said. Mr. Dalmiya also said the GCC did not market the World Cup properly. This, he said, would be taken up with IDI, an arm of the ICC, and an effort would be made to put the GCC on notice.