The LA Knight Riders (LAKR) will be led by Sunil Narine in the MLC’s first season, which will begin on July 13 in the United States. Narine and Andre Russell, who plays for the Kolkata Knight Riders, are two of the marquee players for the MLC club that also named Phil Simmons as its head coach. At Grand Prairie Stadium, LAKR will play Texas Super Kings to open the MLC.
In a Knight Riders press release, Narine stated, “I’ve always spoken about wanting to represent the Knight Riders wherever they play.” We’ve long discussed visiting the US, so I’m delighted it’s finally happening. I am forward to the challenge as this team’s captain. It will be an exciting time for us because this club has several seasoned players on whom I can bounce information. We expect all American Knight Riders supporters to show up and show their support, as well as continued support from all over the world.
Among the other foreign players on the LAKR team are Lockie Ferguson, Jason Roy, Rilee Rossouw, Martin Guptill, and Adam Zampa.
Assisting Simmons will be Ryan Ten Doeschate as the assistant coach, AR Srikkanth as the team analyst, and bowling coach Bharat Arun. Arun works with KKR as their IPL bowling coach.
Simmons brings with him a wealth of coaching expertise from both the international T20 competitions and cricket. He led the West Indies teams twice (2015–16 and 2019–2022) in addition to coaching the teams of Zimbabwe (2004–05), Ireland (2007–2015), and Afghanistan (2017–19).
He was recently chosen as the coach of Trinbago Knight Riders, the most successful club in the CPL, in the T20 circuit. In 2019, he also won the championship with Barbados Royals (formerly Tridents). In the inaugural ILT20 tournament this year, he also guided Dubai Capitals to the playoffs.
