Kolkata: Star bowler Sunil Narine, Knight Riders’ long-serving allrounder, will captain the Los Angeles Knight Riders (LAKR) team that is set to take part in the inaugural season of Major League Cricket MLC) in the USA, KKR sources here on Monday said.

The LAKR squad is made up of a strong set of international players - Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Jason Roy, Lockie Ferguson, Rilee Rossouw, Martin Guptill, Adam Zampa, Spencer Johnson along with the domestic USA players - Ali Khan, Unmukt Chand, Ali Sheikh, Bhaskar Yadram, Corne Dry, Jaskaran Malhotra, Nitish Kumar, Saif Badar, Shadley Van Schalkwyk and Gajanand Singh.

Speaking about this, Narine said: “I’ve always spoken about wanting to represent the Knight Riders wherever they play. We’ve long talked about coming to the United States and I’m glad it's finally happening. As Captain of this side, I am looking forward to the
challenge."

There are a lot of experienced guys in this team who I can bounce information off, so it will be an exciting time for us. We hope for all Knight Riders fans in America to come out and support us, and all those around the world to keep cheering for us," he added.

Phil Simmons will be the head coach of the LAKR team, and he will be assisted by Bharat Arun (Bowling coach), Ryan Ten Doeschate (Assistant Coach), and R Srikkanth (Analyst), as the squad prepares to play the opening game of MLC 2023 at the Grand Prairie Stadium on July 13 vs the Texas Super Kings.

Phil Simmons played for West Indies from 1987 to 1999 as an opening batter and medium-pacer, representing them in three World Cups.

Post-retirement, Coach Simmons had two stints as head coach of the West Indies (2015–2016 and 2019–2022), along with coaching roles for Zimbabwe (2004–2005), Ireland (2007–2015), and Afghanistan (2017–2019).

(With UNI inputs)