No word from ICC yet on Narine - Kallis

Jacques Kallis, the Kolkata Knight Riders coach, has said that the franchise has not yet received an official verdict from the ICC regarding the legality of offspinner Sunil Narine's remodeled bowling action.

Kallis was hopeful of a positive verdict though: "He has done a lot of work, from what I hear. We haven't got an official verdict from ICC yet but hopefully it will come back positive."

Narine may still be in doubt for the first match against Delhi Daredevils on April 10 after he had to return to the West Indies following the death of his father.

"Unfortunately, he lost a family member, his dad passed away so he's gone back," Kallis said. "We are certainly not putting any pressure on him to get back yet," Kallis said."It's something that I have been through and know how tough a time it is so we are not putting any pressure. When he's right and he feels he is ready to play cricket he will come to us."

Narine, who has been Knight Riders' lynch pin over the years with 74 wickets in four seasons, was suspended from bowling in international cricket last November. He had spent a year out of the West Indies side working on his action, but three games into his comeback, he was pulled up again. Narine has not played for his country since. The WICB named him in the squad for the 2016 World T20, but he withdrew citing "insufficient progress in the rehabilitative work on his bowling action." It could not be confirmed if Narine has already undergone on a test on his reworked action at an ICC-accredited centre.

Narine was also called for suspect action in the Champions League T20 2015 and the IPL 2015. The BCCI had even banned him from bowling his offbreak in all tournaments they would organise, but about a week later Narine got it cleared with a "final warning."

IPL 2016 will be Kallis' first season as Knight Riders coach, after he was picked to replace Trevor Bayliss in October last year. Bayliss, who became coach of the Knight Riders side in 2012, left the IPL for his job as coach of the England team.

Kallis stressed that he would not make too many changes to an already successful set-up established by Bayliss, who set up two title-winning campaigns.

"Trevor was magnificent for us and I think he has shown what a good coach he is, taking on the England job and doing a wonderful job with them. So we are fortunate that the systems in place certainly won't change," he said. "My coaching style will be very similar to what his was. There's an old saying: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Certainly we will be sticking to that theory.

"Fortunately I've worked under him as a player and as a filler coach so got to know how it works with the guys and most of the guys are pretty much the same. Like I said I won't be changing too much. A couple of things to add my own identity but as a whole I don't see things changing too much."