In an ideal scenario, Dirk Nannes would have been opening the bowling for Victoria Bushrangers against Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir in the Champions League Twenty20 come October 9. As things stands, however, it will be exactly the opposite, with Victoria skipper Brad Hodge at the receiving end.

But Nannes refuses to believe that bowling to his Bushrangers team mates will be difficult. “It’s not something new for me. I played against few of my (Victoria) team mates in the IPL. If you play for Middlesex or for some club you end up playing against your team mates at some point or the other. So I don’t think it’s a problem when I bowl against Victoria. I wish them all the luck,” says Nannes, adding, “but not against us .”

Nannes isn’t the only one in the Delhi franchise who has spent time in the Victoria dressing room though. Daredevils coach David Sacker has been part of the outfit’s coaching staff along with Greg Shipperd. This time, though, Shipperd and Sacker will be planning strategies against each other’s team after the former chose to coach the Australian club side.

“I know a lot about the Victoria team and in the same way Greg knows about Daredevils inside out. So there’ll be a lot of insider knowledge changing places. But I think Delhi have a lot of talent and if we play to our potential, we’ll beat them,” says Sacker.

But Nannes prefers to keep things simple. “I don’t know about how this knowledge helps. For me tactics are over-rated. You need one good ball to get the batsman out. It’s okay for coaches to plan and get the team to fall in line if something is not going right. But you can’t plan for every thing that’s going on in the field, you need to hit the good areas to get wickets,” the 33-year-old adds.

... contd.