For coach Kirsten, everything he touches seems to turn into gold. Delhi Daredevils will hope that some of that Midas touch rubs on their team which finished at the bottom of the Indian Premier League last season.
The former India coach's initiation will be a tough one with rules about player retention ahead of IPL 7 still in a limbo and planning earnestly towards building a team is not expected to begin anytime soon.
"I would not have taken up this assignment if I didn't believe I could succeed. It is a new challenge for me and the window for preparation is very small. You try to build the best team possible but all of that can change dramatically when all players go into the pool every three years," Kirsten said at a cricket clinic for the Daredevils School Cup on Friday.
"I'll be sitting down with the team management to chart out our strategy in the next couple of months. But I have to quickly learn about coaching in IPL," the South African, who will have a series of meeting with Daredevils owners GMR group in Delhi and Bangalore over the next two days, said.
It's not often that you get a World Cup-winning coach in your midst and the 100-odd starry-eyed school kids who turned up for the clinic appeared mesmerised. Even the dark clouds hovering over the Air Force ground in Palam stayed away for Kirsten to hold court.
Some of these enthusiasts quizzed him about the perfect technique to play spin bowling in the sub-continent.
"I think kids these days can learn a lot from (MS) Dhoni's technique of defending against spin. Depending on the length, Dhoni defends brilliantly off the backfoot by keeping his head low and over the ball. The Indian skipper is also quick to jump out to hit those massive sixes when there is enough flight on the ball... all the Indian batsmen are fantastic players of spin bowling and great role models," the 45-year-old said.
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