Klusener named Dolphins coach

Lance Klusener, the former South Africa allrounder, has been appointed coach of the Dolphins franchise. He will begin working with the team on July 16, on a two-year contract.

Klusener, 40, had worked with the Dolphins on an interim basis after Graham Ford resigned earlier this year. He said he was pleased to be working with his old franchise. "Being a former Dolphin, I am very proud of my team and want to be part of the process of rebuilding the team to its rightful place as South Africa's No. 1 franchise."

Klusener has level 3 coaching certification from Cricket South Africa, and has worked at the country's high performance centre and with IPL franchise, Mumbai Indians. The shortlist of candidates for the job was brought down to two names, Klusener and former Cobras coach Shukri Conrad, before Klusener was chosen. Reportedly, while the panel selecting the coach was split initially over Klusener's appointment, he was the Dolphins players' clear first choice for the job all through.

The Dolphins have not come close to challenging for a trophy for the last four seasons, since qualifying for what would have been the inaugural Champions League T20 in 2008 - the tournament was cancelled due to the terror attacks in Mumbai in November that year. They had won only one game in ten this season in first-class cricket, finishing bottom of the table in the SuperSport Series, and did not make the knockouts in the domestic one-day tournament.

Fa-eez Jaffar, the chairman KwaZulu-Natal Cricket, said Klusener's main task would be to reintroduce a winning culture into the franchise set-up. "Lance has been a Dolphins man all his life. It will be good to see him working with and bringing out the best in our senior players, and guiding and mentoring our young emerging players.

"One of his first tasks would be to reintroduce the culture of winning and playing with passion and pride wearing the Dolphins badge. This has been missing for some time. Players must want to play for the Dolphins."