KOLKATA – In a sig­nif­i­cant move ahead of the 2025 In­di­an Pre­mier League (IPL) sea­son, the Kolkata Knight Rid­ers (KKR) have ap­point­ed for­mer West In­dies fast bowler and coach Ot­tis Gib­son as their as­sis­tant coach.

The 55-year-old Bar­ba­di­an brings a wealth of ex­pe­ri­ence to the fran­chise, join­ing a star-stud­ded coach­ing team that in­cludes Chan­drakant Pan­dit (head coach), Trinida­di­an Dwayne Bra­vo (men­tor), Bharat Arun (bowl­ing coach), and Carl Crowe (spin bowl­ing coach).

Gib­son, who en­joyed a four-year in­ter­na­tion­al play­ing ca­reer with the West In­dies, has since built an im­pres­sive coach­ing re­sume. He has held promi­nent roles on the glob­al stage, in­clud­ing two sep­a­rate stints as Eng­land’s bowl­ing coach.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, he served as head coach for the West In­dies (2010-2014) and South Africa (2017-2019), guid­ing the West In­dies to their maid­en T20 World Cup tri­umph in 2012. His coach­ing jour­ney al­so in­cludes roles with Bangladesh, York­shire Coun­ty Crick­et Club, and var­i­ous T20 fran­chis­es.

The de­fend­ing cham­pi­ons, KKR, are un­der­go­ing a trans­for­ma­tion in their back­room staff fol­low­ing the de­par­ture of last sea­son’s men­tor, Gau­tam Gamb­hir, who has tak­en over as the head coach of the se­nior In­di­an men’s crick­et team. Gamb­hir’s ex­it al­so saw Ab­hishek Na­yar and Ryan ten Doeschate move to the In­di­an team set­up.

KKR will kick off their ti­tle de­fence on March 22 with a home game against Roy­al Chal­lengers Ben­galu­ru. The team will be led by new­ly ap­point­ed cap­tain Ajinkya Ra­hane, with Venkatesh Iy­er as his deputy.

CMC