Sanjeev Goenka, the owner of the Lucknow IPL franchise, has made it clear that he will be taking long term decisions this time around, unlike his previous stint in the IPL where he was very “impatient” and changed things quickly. Goenka had a brief go as a franchise owner in the IPL in 2016 and 2017 when he temporarily owned Rising Pune Super Giant (RPSG).
RPSG couldn’t qualify to the playoffs in the 2016 IPL season under the captaincy of MS Dhoni, and Goenka made the huge call of sacking Dhoni straight away. Dhoni was replaced by a young Steve Smith as the captain of RPSG, a decision which actually paid dividends as RPSG didn’t just qualify to the playoffs under Smith in 2017, they qualified to the final as well and eventually lost the final by just 1 run against Mumbai Indians.
Goenka, however, is planning to work with a different approach this time around as it’s now more of a permanent project for him, rather than a temporary one, which it was in 2016 and 2017. He wants to build a culture that fetches him consistent results in the long run, even if it takes a bit of time.
Sanjeev Goenka has already made two high profile recruitments for Lucknow
A couple of high profile recruitments have already been made by Sanjeev Goenka as the former Zimbabwe wicketkeeper Andy Flower and the former Indian opening batsman Gautam Gambhir have been appointed the head coach and the mentor of the franchise respectively. Both Flower and Gambhir have got a high reputation in the game for their tactical acumen.
According to Goenka, although he thinks IPL needs to change the system of signing the players because the system of the mega auction doesn’t allow the teams to plan long term, he can’t do anything about it because it’s all in the hands of IPL governing council. However, he is trying to take inspiration from IPL’s most successful team Mumbai Indians, the kind of culture they have built and the way they have achieved their success in the league so far.
Talking to Times of India, Goenka said Mumbai Indians are not just a template for the IPL franchises to follow, even the teams from the other sports around the world can look at the evolution of Mumbai Indians and take a leaf out of their book, as far as team building is concerned.
Mumbai Indians are the most successful team in the history of the IPL with 5 titles, while Chennai Super Kings (CSK) are at the second position with 4 titles.
