IPL2: KKR or it should be SRK or may be BRK?

That means...Kolkata Knight Riders [KKR] or Shahrukh’s Riders of Knights [SRK] or Buchanan’s Knight Riders [BRK]?

On March 25th KKR coach John Buchanan announced that the Knight Riders will not have only one captain, but as many as 4-5, excluding the assistant coach who will be deciding on the batting order for every match of the IPL 2, which is due to be held in South Africa. The captaincy candidates are New Zealand vice-captain Brandon McCullam, newly appointed West Indies captain Chris Gyale, Aussie rejected 34 year old Brad Hodge, Bengal captain Laxmi Ratan Shukla and India’s most successful captain ever – Mr. Saurav Ganguly.

In my sense, it will be absolute blunder. This cricketing world never ever listened something weird of that sort. Some will beg to differ with me as none could think of T20 cricket also few years ago, but it is a reality and a success today. However, I must say that making a tournament and changing the concept of the most powerful man in cricket is two different thing altogether. In my opinion, 3-4 captains at a time in a team is a policy that will create rift among the players. One can distribute the work among individuals like Indian team is doing. For instance, in case of bowling, Zaheer Khan is showing the way. But, the definitive decision should be taken by the captain only. Otherwise it has all the ingredients to backfire. Consider this example, in a certain case, where 15 runs are needed from one last over, one captain may think that a spinner who is bowling well in the match so far should be given the task of contending, whereas another captain may believe that it is relatively easy to score of a spinner and thus a proven fast bowler who can bowl Yorkers at 140-150 km/hr should be given the opportunity. There generates a rift, confusion and a wish to be noticed among all the other captains which can cause hindrances in team spirit.

Buchanan is saying that he can also assign different chief captains for different games. What purpose will this serve? Suppose, if McCullam has done well in a game, he may well be replaced by Shukla, who only played a game or two in international level. This can result into an uncertain captain’s mind on field and a crack in team unity. As a captain, one can prefer a certain player over another and that player can do well in that game also. In the next game, when another takes over the captaincy, he may well not committed to give his 100% as he may well be indebted to his earlier captain who gave him the chance! Also the KKR assistant coach, Murphy, who will decide on the batting order has never played international cricket! Coaching is one thing and strategy and decision making is another. Mr. John Buchanan needs to understand this.

In a way, Buchanan is questioning the credentials of India’s most successful captain ever by this 4-5 captain formula. He is comparing Ganguly with Gayle who is appointed less than a year ago, Hodge who has zero experience in international cricket captaincy, McCullam who has next to zero experience and Shukla who has the Bengal captaincy for two years only! This is absolute rubbish on Buchanan’s part. When one compare the two, it reveals that Ganguly had won India matches with new, young and inexperienced players over the years and he did that in a time when Indian cricket was going through its worst crisis of match fixing and renovation. On the other hand, Buchanan won matches with players like Hayden, Langer, Ponting, Waugh, Hussey, McGrath, Warne, Gillespie, McGill, Lee and Gilchrist who are all legends of the game. Anyone can win match with even half of them in the side and Buchanan also faced humiliation in 2005 Ashes in the hands of a depleted English side!

It is absolutely a mortification that Buchanan is doing with Saurav Ganguly who single handedly won KKR at least 3 matches last time. Last year KKR won 6 or 7 matches with overseas players like Taibu, Butt, Hafeez playing with Indian players like Aakash Chopra, Murali Karthik at one time. Gyale, Hodge, Ponting, Akhtar, McCullam were all absent. To win matches with such a team was a Herculean task and KKR did exactly that under Saurav Ganguly. 3 matches he won by scoring two 80 odd runs and in one, taking three wickets. Therefore, his performance was not bad and with that, captaincy also. So, why Buchanan is experimenting with the captaincy now? Above all, IPL is a grand platform and is no place to experiment. If at all Buchanan wants to test, he can go back to Australia and may well implement all his strategies with an under 15 or under 17 team of Tasmania. But, not with KKR in such a high profile extravaganza and that too before 3 weeks of the tournament!

Why am I addressing this team as SRK or BRK, and not KKR is that when you do humiliation to the favorite son of the state in such a way, you don’t deserve to include that state’s name in it. I doubt, if Buchanan and Shahrukh sticks with this, whether they will be able to fill 1/100th of the Eden Gardens in IPL 3. Saurav is the flag bearer of Kolkata in cricket and without Him; there can not be a Kolkatan team. Therefore, Kolkata can boycott this team forever and then Shahrukh will have to change the name of this team to may be SRK [Shahrukh’s Riders of Knight] or BKR [Buchanan’s Knight Riders].....