Photo Credit: Royal Challengers Bangalore
With the 14th Season of IPL all set to kick-start from April 9, Royal Challengers Bangalore will be facing Mumbai Indians in their season opener match. Today, in a virtual media session, Mr Anand Kripalu, Chairman- RCB & Mike Hesson, Director of Cricket Operations, RCB, spoke about the plans of Royal Challengers Bangalore for this year’s campaign.
Addressing the media, Mr Kripalu & Hesson touched upon the key factors of bio – bubble environment, with players joining from different parts of India and abroad in the coming days. They also addressed the details of the team camp, onboarding of the support staff, and excitement of having an excellent mix of experienced and promising set of new recruits.
Speaking on the occasion, Anand Kripalu, Chairman, RCB, said, “At Royal Challengers Bangalore we are excited as we kick off yet another season of IPL. On the back of strong progress last year and with some exciting new talent from the recent auction, we remain confident as we approach the 2021 season. At RCB we have always strived to create a culture of excellence. With players staying in bio-bubbles for prolonged periods, it will be our endeavour to provide them the right psychological, physical, and emotional support. RCB’s biggest strength lies in the love and support of our fans; this year again we will miss playing on our home ground amongst our fans. We have, however, ensured high levels of digital engagement through our marquee content properties. Our fans can also experience the RCB lifestyle brand at our recently launched RCB Bar & Café for some very interesting activities – through the IPL season and beyond.”
Photo Credit: Twitter photo of @AnandKripalu
Talking about the preparations for the season, Mike Hesson – Director of Cricket Operations, RCB, said, “As we set to make another mark in the new season, we have aimed at building on our last year’s success in making the playoffs. We made significant progress last year after two very tough seasons of results, but it also showed us that we had some phases of the game where we needed to improve. So, we felt required to tweak the squad in identified areas and made some valuable additions in the auctions to further strengthen the balance of the team. We have an excellent mix of players with extensive International experience both for India and other sides. In addition to that, we also have players pushing to be included in International sides through performance. We strive to be a side that’s consistently performing in the IPL, unearth new talent to compliment the already established stars.”
Hesson further added, “While scouting for player recruits, we Identify new players with potential and assess existing players’ readiness to fulfil a role within RCB’s Style of Play. With bringing in a number of talented but developing batsmen into the squad, we felt needed to provide a year-round coaching resource for this year and beyond. We are fortunate to have secured the services of an experienced coach in Sanjay Bangar who understands the Indian conditions so well. I am sure his experience and expertise will add to our already established coaching staff making the squad more robust throughout our IPL campaign.”
The team has begun the training camp in Chennai from March 30 onwards and will have all the players arrive in the coming days to complete the unit before the commencement of the tournament.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), officially Royal Challengers Bengaluru, is a professional cricket team based in Bangalore, Karnataka, competing in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Founded in 2008 by United Spirits, the team is named after the company’s liquor brand, Royal Challenge. Their home ground is M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.
