Warne to captain and coach in IPL

There has been much talk of the huge wages in the Indian Premier League but Shane Warne will certainly earn his money after being named both captain and coach of the Rajasthan Royals, the Jaipur team. Kepler Wessels, the former South African captain, will coach the Chennai Super Kings.

Warne's franchise is owned by Emerging Media who paid $US67million and their chief executive Fraser Castellino was pleased with snaring him. "We were looking for a legendary cricketer whom all players will look up to," said Castellino. "Shane's commitment and astute cricketing brain makes him one of the most respected cricketers in the history of the game."

Warne will be assisted by a strong support staff, which will include former Indian team physiotherapist John Gloster. "Shane Warne's extraordinary achievements on and off the field, combined with his unique understanding of the game, has made him a living sporting legend," Gloster said. "It is this leadership and experience that will develop the success and spirit of the Rajasthan Royals. All the players will look up to Shane's commitment and astute cricketing brain."

The Chennai management were also happy with their choice of Wessels. "We wanted somebody who would keep the focus on cricket, be a good task master, and help us win the tournament," VB Chandrasekhar, who is part of the management, told Cricinfo.

It is understood that L Sivaramakrishnan, the former India player and currently, a commentator, had mooted the idea of roping in Wessels. Sivaramakrishnan and Wessels are part of the commentary team in Bangladesh for the home series against South Africa.

Wessels and Warne join a high-profile list of names of IPL coaches, which includes Martin Crowe (Bangalore), John Buchanan (Kolkata) and Tom Moody (Mohali). Robin Singh is the coach of the Hyderabad outfit while Delhi had named Victoria's Greg Shipperd as their coach. Mumbai is yet to select a coach.

The Chennai franchise have roped in Aniruddha Srikkanth, R Ashwin and Sudeep Tyagi, the UP fast bowler. Though they have 15 players in the roll and theoretically need just one more but they are looking to sign up six more players as they fear some of the international stars might not be available for the full tournament.

The Mohali team has signed up VRV Singh and two under-22 players in Karan Goel and Uday Kaul, which mean they have 13 players and need three more players to complete the squad.

Mumbai have picked Ajinkya Rahane and Abhishek Nayar from Mumbai and Maharashtra' wicketkeeper Yogesh Takawale and Baroda's glovesman Pinal Shah.

Hyderabad have already 16 players on their rolls. VVS Laxman (C), Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Herschelle Gibbs, Shahid Afridi, Chaminda Vaas, Chamara Silva, Nuwan Zoysa, RP Singh, Rohit Sharma, N Arjun Yadav, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Pragyan Ojha, D Kalyankrishna, P Vijay Kumar, Y Venugopala Rao, Haladhar Das (wk). Head coach: Robin Singh. Assistant coach: Kanwaljit Singh. Manager: Vijay Mohan Raj.