John Wright

Calcutta: The Southern Institute of Technology (SIT) in Invercargill, New Zealand, intends offering five sports-related scholarships to Indians in the name of John Wright.

Besides captaining New Zealand, Wright, 55, was the Team India coach from November 2000 to April 2005.

“I’m delighted that SIT has come forward in this manner and that my very warm association with India is going to continue,” Wright told The Telegraph, from New Delhi, on Saturday.

According to Ken McDonald, SIT’s international marketing manager, the scholarships could be awarded to non-cricketers, too, including coaches from other disciplines.

Each John Wright-SIT Scholarship will be for a period of between 12-18 months and applications are likely to be accepted from May.

“We’ll be looking for tie-ups with educational institutions and, once Sourav Ganguly’s school is up and running (in Calcutta), we may have an arrangement with him,” Wright added.

Sourav, India’s most successful Test captain, and Wright were on excellent terms for many years.

Wright, who was a contender for the Kolkata Knight Riders’ coach’s job, is likely to make a “presentation” in Calcutta after a few days.

Asked if he’d been following the Knights’ run in IPL 2010, Wright replied: “I know they haven’t been consistent and would like to sign off, at least, on a high...”

As it turned out, the Knights thrashed the Rajasthan Royals, on Saturday, giving themselves a wafer-thin chance of qualifying for the semi-finals.