Kolkata Knight Riders on Tuesday announced that head coach Chandrakant pandit will not be continuing with the franchise anymore. “We wish you the best for your future endeavours, Chandu Sir,” KKR said on X. Pandit guided the franchise to their 3rd IPL title in 2024 but could not repeat the feat in the last season with the Purple and Gold team eliminated before the playoffs.
“Mr Chandrakant Pandit has decided to explore new opportunities and will not continue as head coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders,” the franchise said in a statement.
“We are thankful for his invaluable contribution -including leading KKR to the TATA IPL Championship in 2024 and helping build a strong, resilient squad. his leadership and discipline have left a lasting impact on the team. We wish him all the best for the future,” the statement added.
We wish you the best for your future endeavours, Chandu Sir 🤗
PS: Once a Knight, always a Knight. Kolkata will always be your home 💜 pic.twitter.com/GF0LxX5fIz
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) July 29, 2025
KKR had appointed Pandit as their new head coach in August 2022 after he guided Madhya Pradesh to their maiden Ranji Trophy title. He also won the national championship multiple times with Mumbai and Vidarbha.
Pandit is famed for his hard-taskmaster style, and painstakingly-prepared plans that brook little interference from either captain or bowler. During a Ranji semi-final against Karnataka, he had taken away the phones of the Vidarbha players, worried that they might keep checking them late into the night and lose focus.
There are tales of him not being averse to slapping the odd player who broke a law he’d laid down. It is this aspect of his coaching that gets played up the most, but there is doubtless a method behind the remote control, and it has worked for years now.
Pandit played five Tests and 36 ODIs for India between mid 1980s to early 1990s.
(More to follow)
