Steyn all fired up to turn his arm in IPL

There is no better place to tell the world you’re up for the challenge than Eden Gardens‚ Kolkata’s vast concrete dinosaur skeleton of a cricket stadium.

It’s where Dale Steyn will be on Friday‚ charging in to bowl for Royal Challengers Bangalore with Virat Kohli as his captain‚ AB de Villiers in the field and a crowd of 68,000 torn between shouting for Kolkata Knight Riders‚ the national obsession who is Kohli‚ or “ABD!”

Or even Steyn himself‚ wild of eye and spirit‚ tilting at windmills called Chris Lynn‚ Dinesh Karthik and Andre Russell.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) turns a lot of what many non-Indians think they know about cricket on its head‚ like the fact that a player of Steyn’s greatness can go unsold at the player auction.

But now he’s on his way to India because Nathan CoulterNile is staying home in Australia to get over a back problem.

“Just a quick message to say I’ll be joining Royal Challengers Bangalore in the next couple of days for the remainder of the IPL‚” Steyn popped up to reveal in a head-and-shoulders video on RCB’s twitter account on Friday‚ looking every bit as chuffed as he said he was.

“Very excited. Been a couple of years since I last played in the IPL‚ been longer since I played for RCB. So‚ very excited to join Virat‚ AB and the boys‚ Gary [Kirsten]‚ and I’ll see you guys in the next couple of days.”

The subplot of Steyn’s passage to India is that he will join a team who lost six games before they chalked up a win‚ and that the bowlers have borne most of the blame for all that.

RCB coach Gary Kirsten‚ too‚ has taken flak‚ not helped by him inviting comparisons with a deeply unfashionable figure elsewhere in his profession.

“One would argue if Arsene Wenger is a good coach or not‚” Kirsten was quoted as saying in an interview with the Indian Express that was published on Saturday.

“In the [22] years that [he was Arsenal manager] he built a club that’s consistently been one of the greatest clubs in English football.

“It’s financially sound‚ it produces great players. It might not necessary produce trophies consistently because sport doesn’t work like that but he has created a fantastic system.”

Very excited. Been a couple of years since I last played in the IPL