The former Indian captain, Sourav Ganguly, was iconic and astonishing in the first season of Indian Premier League. Also leading the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), the fans expected fireworks out of the team, however, the captain and the team slowly witnessed a downfall.
KKR’s Australian coach John Buchanan tried employing multiple captain policy and it failed in the initial years of the league. Kolkata Knight Riders ended up last in the second season as Buchanan was sacked from the franchise, while Ganguly came back as the captain.
Even then, KKR still ended up outside the top-four. Eventually Gautam Gambhir took up Dada’s role in 2011 and successfully drove the team to winning two IPL titles.
Gambhir had said in a chat show that the owner of the team, Shah Rukh Khan, had given him utmost liberty when he took over the captaincy. “This is your team, make it or break it, I will not interfere I just promised him one thing, I don’t know where it’s gonna happen but by the time I leave, whether it’s gonna be three years or six years, this franchise will be in a much better position,” Gambhir said.
The current BCCI president spoke about the problems he faced at KKR and revealed that he had also asked SRK to provide him with the same freedom to navigate the team to winning.
“I was seeing an interview where Gautam Gambhir said Shah Rukh Khan had told him in the fourth year ‘This is your team, I will not interfere.’ That’s what I told him in the first year. Leave it to me. It didn’t happen,” Ganguly said in an interview with Gautam Bhattacharjee on his YouTube channel.
“The best IPL teams have been those that have left the team to the players. Look at CSK, MS Dhoni runs it. In Mumbai also, no one goes up to Rohit Sharma and tells him to select certain players,” Ganguly said.
“Thought process was the issue there. The coach (John Buchanan) believed we needed four captains. So it was just a difference of opinion, he thought, ‘Let me have 4 captains, then I can run it my way.’”
“The problems (with Buchanan) started towards the end of the first season. The problem was not me, the problem was the system of having one captain. We had Brendon Mccullum, we had x, we had a bowling captain, and I don’t know the captain for what else,” Ganguly further added.
Sourav left the Kolkata Knight Riders franchise after the third season and joined the Pune Warriors India. He hung his shoes from the game in 2012. He is now mentoring the Delhi Capital franchise.
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