KKR dumps Buchanan's multi captain idea

Kolkata Knight Riders on Tuesday dumped their cricket manager John Buchanan's idea of having multiple captains in the team.
The KKR management has said there would be only "one" captain for the side for the second season of Indian Premier League.

However, the KKR thinktank did not specify whether Sourav Ganguly will remain captain saying a decision on the issue will be taken in South Africa where the Twenty20 tournament begins on April 18.

Knight Riders management in a statement, following a meeting of Ganguly, Buchanan and team owner Shah Rukh Khan at the Bollywood superstar's bungalow 'Mannat' here this afternoon, said, "The captain for the team is one and only one as in the case in most sports." Seeking to put an end to the controversy after the Australian coach announced that Ganguly will not be the sole captain, the statement continued, "Needless to say the term 'multi captains' has raised a few eyebrows and questions.

"The idea is to have a set of strategists as is always the case classically in cricket, who will form a team of four to five core experts in the field of fielding, bowling, batting and data, etc. These coaches or strategists will assist the one captain on field with their viewpoints on the game-plan set earlier or shoot from the hip as the case may be.

"Just the roles which are there in the regular format of the game as the fielding expert, batting coaches, are being better defined to be able to give quick suggestions as in the case of baseball and some other faster paced sports," the statement said. But the suspense on who would be the captain remained with the KKR deciding to announce the skipper as well as the squad in South Africa.

"As the team is not decided because of all overseas venue changes, etc, we will take the call on the issue of captain, vice-captain, the team, post the sessions in South Africa, prior to the first game.

"Reason for doing so is not to shirk the issue of who is the captain but to announce all that together to make that a cohesive decision from the team management to avoid confusion like it has resulted right now.

"So please can we now lay to rest all theories on how John and Dada relate to each other and let us get on with the more important aspect of getting together the best team to play in the tournament," the statement said.

According to KKR sources, Ganguly was "not very happy" with the decision as there still remained a suspense over "who would be the captain".

Ganguly though did not say anything after the marathon meeting that lasted for about four hours.

KKR also sought to drive home that most of the team decisions were taken collectively and there was no disagreement on any issue. "All internal decisions are taken collectively by the core cricketing team which comprises of Buchanan, Ganguly, Matthew Mott and a few others.

"There is no dissent on that ever. Even this confusion is caused because these roles got described as multiple captains a day before the joint press conference between Buchanan and Ganguly. We have immense respect for the two most senior members of our KKR team and all decisions are taken in tandem."