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Former New Zealand captain, Brendon McCullum was appointed head coach of the Kolkata franchise in the Indian T20 League on Thursday.

McCullum, who played for Kolkata in 2008-10 and 2012-13, announced he was retiring from cricket after the GT20 tournament in Canada earlier this month.

"Brendon has been an integral part of the Knight Riders family for a long time," the franchise’s Chief Executive, Venky Mysore said in a statement.

"His leadership qualities, honesty, positive and aggressive style, combined with his natural ability to bring the best out of the teams he has been part of makes him ideally suited to lead KKR and TKR (Trinbago Knight Riders) as a head coach."

TKR is a franchise team in the Caribbean Premier League. McCullum was part of the TKR squad from 2016-18.

One of the most hard-hitting batsmen of his generation, the 37-year-old skippered New Zealand to the 2015 World Cup final, where they were beaten by Australia.

McCullum was also part of the 2012 KKR squad that won the lucrative Indian T20 championship.

He described his appointment as a "great honour".

"We have fantastic squads in both KKR and TKR and I, along with the support staff, will be looking to build on the successes both franchises have enjoyed," he added.

Feature image courtesy: AFP / Sajjad Hussain

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