<p>Renowned adventurer and explorer, Mike Horn has been roped in by Kolkata Knight Riders for a short stint ahead of the upcoming seventh season of IPL.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Mike, who has earlier worked with the Indian cricket team in 2011 and South African team, will now be sharing his life experiences with the players of KKR in UAE.<br /><br />"Our objective right now with Mike Horn is that he helps out with the integration of the team, since we have a fairly new team this time. The team building exercises, team bonding and of course the motivational side of it. Though he is coming for a very short burst, partly because of his availability. So we will have him for four five days leading up to the first game," said Venky Mysore, CEO of KKR.<br /><br />"The bigger motivation of getting Mike Horn this season was that he has done a lot of work with athletes in general and sports teams, not just cricket. He is very familiar with this zone. And I also got very good endorsement on him from some of the players. It was very encouraging to look at someone like him for our team. I am quite excited with what he can do for KKR," added Mysore.<br /><br />The KKR team gathered in UAE yesterday, instead of assembling in India.<br /><br />"I think there are two reasons for us to assemble in UAE. Firstly, with the new team coming in it is almost like ring-fencing them and keeping them in a place where they don't have any major distractions. And they are together and they are having meals together and more," Mysore said.<br /><br />"It helps when the whole team is in one place. Secondly, it is a good way to get acclimatised to the conditions of the field. Each player gets to practice in that environment in their own field of expertise. This I feel works very well for the players," he explained.<br /><br />Pakistan bowling great Wasim Akram is back as a mentor for KKR this season. "From a cricketing perspective, we are very fortunate that we have a very stable support staff. Two things I am looking forward to and which will help us is that Wasim Akram is back. Last year he had taken a break for personal reasons. So he is back as the mentor and the bowling coach.<br /><br />"We also have W V Raman, who is more of a batting coach. He knows the mindset of the Indian players. So between Wasim and Raman we have two of these specialists which we didn't have last year," said Mysore.</p>
<p>Renowned adventurer and explorer, Mike Horn has been roped in by Kolkata Knight Riders for a short stint ahead of the upcoming seventh season of IPL.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Mike, who has earlier worked with the Indian cricket team in 2011 and South African team, will now be sharing his life experiences with the players of KKR in UAE.<br /><br />"Our objective right now with Mike Horn is that he helps out with the integration of the team, since we have a fairly new team this time. The team building exercises, team bonding and of course the motivational side of it. Though he is coming for a very short burst, partly because of his availability. So we will have him for four five days leading up to the first game," said Venky Mysore, CEO of KKR.<br /><br />"The bigger motivation of getting Mike Horn this season was that he has done a lot of work with athletes in general and sports teams, not just cricket. He is very familiar with this zone. And I also got very good endorsement on him from some of the players. It was very encouraging to look at someone like him for our team. I am quite excited with what he can do for KKR," added Mysore.<br /><br />The KKR team gathered in UAE yesterday, instead of assembling in India.<br /><br />"I think there are two reasons for us to assemble in UAE. Firstly, with the new team coming in it is almost like ring-fencing them and keeping them in a place where they don't have any major distractions. And they are together and they are having meals together and more," Mysore said.<br /><br />"It helps when the whole team is in one place. Secondly, it is a good way to get acclimatised to the conditions of the field. Each player gets to practice in that environment in their own field of expertise. This I feel works very well for the players," he explained.<br /><br />Pakistan bowling great Wasim Akram is back as a mentor for KKR this season. "From a cricketing perspective, we are very fortunate that we have a very stable support staff. Two things I am looking forward to and which will help us is that Wasim Akram is back. Last year he had taken a break for personal reasons. So he is back as the mentor and the bowling coach.<br /><br />"We also have W V Raman, who is more of a batting coach. He knows the mindset of the Indian players. So between Wasim and Raman we have two of these specialists which we didn't have last year," said Mysore.</p>