No Fixed Captains For Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL Season 2 2009

New Delhi, Mar 25: Kolkata Knight Riders’ cricket manager John Buchanan announced in a press conference on Wednesday that former Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly would not be acting as a ‘fixed’ captain for the Shah Rukh Khan owned franchisee in the second season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

“Ganguly and I have talked about it yesterday and decided that there need not necessarily be a fixed captain,” he said. “The team will have four captains.”

Buchanan denied any rift in the team and claimed that the dismissal of Ganguly as a fixed captain had no relation with his performance or fitness.

 The team will have a separate batting captain and a fielding captain.

Elaborating the new blueprint, Buchanan said, “I really think in the course of this 20-over tournament we have the capacity to have the team coach, Matthew Mott, running the batting side of things. If we have to change the batting order or change personnel to fit a certain situation, then that is something that could fall under his control.”

“Once on the field, we have some very good leaders there in Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum, Brad Hodge and Sourav Ganguly. The laws of the game state that you need a captain for certain formal roles, such as the coin toss, but that aside, I see there is scope to challenge the way teams have been run in the past,” he added.

Ganguly too accepted the decision saying, “I am not upset…My goal is to score runs and take wickets”

“This is a unique concept… John has the right to implement his own methods,” he added.

“We have not nominated a captain and it is still open,” he added.

According to Buchanan’s new formula, KKR proposes to have a team captain, a fielding captain as well as the batting captain, who will assume specific roles during the match. 

He said, “I am basically looking to running the batting side off the field. It will take a lot of pressure off the captain.”

Frontrunners for four captains’ posts

Team captain: Will got for toss
Frontrunners: Brendon McCullum, Chris Gayle, Brad Hodge and Laxmi Ratan Shulka

Batting captain: Will decide the batting order
Frontrunner: Coach John Buchanan, Mathew Mott

Fielding captain: Will be rotated among a group of players


Explaining the new arrangement Buchanan said, “The knowledge of individuals will be utilised in different parts of game. We are looking to utilise the experience of experiernced people in the team.”

On a question on differences with Ganguly, Buchanan said,” I dont agree this is a controversy. If there is conflict or confusion, it has to come back to one point. We need to work through this and with the help of all players, we are working towards that.”

“He is the king of Kolkata…I am not,” he added, to which Sourav said, “I am not the King…I am not upset with him.”

The Kolkata Knight Riders owner Shah Rukh Khan seems to have played the peacemaker and the actor minced no words while backing the former Indian captain. SRK went on record to state that the Kolkata IPL team respects Ganguly’s genius and experience.

He said, “Won’t even comment on such nonsense piece of news. Dada and me are too self-respecting to cater to all the write-ups. You guys should support your team and Dada and make sure the team shines one day. We, at KKR, respect Dada’s genius.”

1 Comment Posted

  1. Has Buchanan gone mad or is out of his brain???
    This is such an idiotic idea..
    This is only for publicity and not for the welfare of the team..

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