Pratik DograPlaced last on the
IPL points table by some distance and with absolutely no chance of booking a semi-final berth now half-way through the tournament, the Kolkata Knight Riders have hit the rock bottom with a thump, few predicted, and almost no one expected.
High profile foreign recruit - Ricky Ponting turned their backs on the team even before the tournament started. Their captain Brendon McCullum can’t seem to put bat to ball. Body language of their talisman Sourav Ganguly suggests he would rather be anywhere else than playing in South Africa…and now, grapevine suggests that super coach John Buchanan is on the verge of being handed the pink slip from the employers.
So much for the ‘Multiple Captains Theory’, even 11 captains, it now seems, would prove insufficient to stem the flow of misfortunes for the beleaguered Kolkata outfit.
One does feel sad watching the team with most passionate breed of followers suffer one defeat after another.
Knight Riders have only themselves to blame for their miseries. The reasons though seem many; the five chief causes responsible for the downfall of arguably the most celebrated team in IPL according to this author are as follows:
Failure to decode the `Sourav Ganguly` phenomenon He may not be the swiftest in the field, nor be tailor-made for T20, but few would dispute the fact that Ganguly knew how to command respect from rivals and inspire confidence from team-mates. By reducing their icon player (who BTW bagged 3 Man-of-the Match awards in the previous season) to a plain middle order batsman and banishing him to the third-man, KKR blunted what could have been their most potent weapon.
The team management failed miserably to get the best out of Ganguly. In appointing Brendon McCullum as captain, the management not only grossly overlooked Ganguly’s immense motivational abilities, but also alienated the team from majority of its supporters.
Ironically, KKR could do with some much needed motivation and support now!
John Buchanan and his lap-top theoriesBuchanan doesn’t boast of too many fans within Australia’s cricketing circles. Shane Warne trashes him every now and then. And while his other ‘protégés’ may not be scathing, none has claimed to lay his life for him yet either!
Guiding a team full of Warnes and McGraths and Haydens and Gilchrists to back-to-back World Cup titles was, is and remains his claim to fame. It’s a different matter that Warnie (who else) backs his mom to have done a better job with that team.
The problem with Buchanan is his extremely mediocre playing record that makes it tough for him to convince players of his big ideas. The multiple-captain theory is not his only brainwave though.
He had once talked of developing ambidextrous cricketers, capable of playing both left handed and right handed with equal efficiency!
Over-complicating simplified things is Buchanan’s forte. Where is the space for four captains in a 20 over game? Decentralisation is one thing, what Buchanan, with his mechanical approach, achieved was disintegration.
And someone needs to snatch that silly lap-top away from him for Pete’s sake. CRICKET IS GAME DECIDED ON THE 22 YARDS WITH A BAT AND A BALL. YOU NEED TO SCORE RUNS AND TAKE WICKETS. It’s as simple as that, dear super coach!
Too much talkAny thing which Shah Rukh Khan gets associated with, is bound to generate ‘too much talk.’ What the Bollywood’s superstar needs to understand is that for a cricket team, the priority should be winning matches. Being the highest profit-grossing team is of little, or rather no solace for finishing last in the title race.
He may successfully convert substance-less films into block-busters with aggressive marketing and splurging on PR, but cricket is a different ball game. Here, just smart talk won’t take you anywhere. His rebuff to none other than Sunil Gavaskar (though he later apologised) for his views on Buchanan’s captaincy theory, his high voltage ‘Korbo Lorbo Jeetbo Re’ campaign, his hyped KKR Knights and Angels reality show (another damp squib as winners returned from South Africa without performing even once!), have all gone a long way in reducing his team to the status of a laughing stock in the IPL.
He may have invested money, but may be leaving cricketing aspects to his cricketing peers (not Buchanan of course) may have been a better idea!
The tag-line of his team’s promotional video goes like- The Wild Just Got Wilder’. He may want to consider rephrasing it as ‘The Mild Just Got Milder’, henceforth.
With his team in doldrums, the King Khan of Bollywood beat a hasty retreat and vowed to return to South Africa only if his team starts winning…or in other words, NEVER.
Lack of depth in squad If Test discard Aakash Chopra is batting at number 5 in a Twenty20 game, and can be replaced only by another discard Sanjay Bangar for the next game, obviously something is wrong with the team set-up.When Ajit Agarkar, past his prime by all standards is your front line bowler and Ishant Sharma is not your obvious choice for number 11 (he batted at as high as number 7 in a game!), there is a glaring lack of depth in the squad.
This, after KKR boasts of a big pool comprising 52 players.
Faulty team selections have had a huge role to play in the team’s fall. Mashrafe bin Mortaza was bought for a whopping USD 600,000, but is yet to get a game.
Last year’s top performers Wriddhiman Saha and Ashok Dinda have curiously not featured in KKR’s scheme of things. Enough has already been said on the under utilization of Ganguly’s talents.
Insipid on-field leadershipHand picked by Buchanan for captaincy, Brendon McCullum has been a pale shadow of his former self. From smashing 158 in IPL’s curtain raiser last year, McCullum has found the going tough in this edition.
Neither has he shown imagination on the field, nor has he been able to inspire his team. His decision to field Ganguly at `third man` has also drawn flak from various quarters. What has also not helped the Kiwi is his woeful form with the bat.
One can’t help but empathise with him. He is trying his level best, but the circumstances around him haven’t helped either. Had a couple of close finishes gone favourably towards him, things may have been different.
