Ryan ten Doeschate back with Knight Riders as strategy head

Ryan ten Doeschate is back with Knight Riders Sports, this time as its Head of Cricket Strategy across all of the organisation’s franchise teams.

In the role, he will oversee scouting, recruitment, squad planning and performance evaluation for every team under the Knight Riders banner.

He will also work as Assistant Coach for Trinbago Knight Riders in the CPL, Abu Dhabi Knight Riders in the ILT20, and Los Angeles Knight Riders in the MLC.

Ten Doeschate’s Knight Riders journey began as a Kolkata Knight Riders player in 2011, and he was part of the side’s IPL-winning campaigns in 2012 and 2014.

He returned as a coach from 2022 to 2024, playing a part in KKR’s third IPL title triumph in 2024.

Knight Riders Sports CEO Venky Mysore said the franchise was delighted to welcome him back, highlighting his deep understanding of the group’s cricketing philosophy and broad experience.

Ten Doeschate said he was excited about working with coaching and analytics teams across the franchises to strengthen scouting and player-development systems.

The move follows his exit as assistant coach of the Indian men’s team after its white-ball series in England earlier this year.

The Knight Riders group is co-owned by Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment, holding a 55 per cent stake, alongside Juhi Chawla and Jay Mehta’s Mehta Group with the remaining 45 per cent; the same ownership also runs Trinbago Knight Riders in the Caribbean Premier League.

As a player, ten Doeschate represented the Netherlands at international level, scoring two centuries at the 2011 World Cup including a famous 119 against England, and spent close to two decades at Essex, whom he captained to two County Championship titles before retiring in 2021.

Ten Doeschate’s return comes as several franchises across global T20 leagues have moved to centralise scouting and player-development functions across their multi-team ownership groups, rather than running each franchise’s cricket operations in isolation.

(Image: Photo by Partha Bhaumik, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0)