The Kolkata Knight Riders’ coach, Mr John Buchanan’s idea of multiple captaincy is a mockery of the game, Dilip Vengsarkar (in photo) said here today. Vengsarkar said he would be glad to see Sourav Ganguly back at the helm of the KKR.
“Suppose there is one ball to go and six runs to be scored and then four guys come to advise you. I want Ganguly to go to (Mr) Buchanan and ask him what to do. This is a mockery of the game with four captains telling the captain what to do,” said Vengsarkar, who was here for a product promotion programme.

‘A sell-out show’
Filling stadiums in South Africa will be one of the biggest challenges facing the Indian Premier League but its publicist, Mr Percy Dubash, has expressed confidence that a large number of fans from India and other countries will flock to the country to witness the tournament which starts in Cape Town on 18 April.
“The rainbow nation is a very popular tourist destination and we are certain that a large number of Indians and non-resident Indians will visit the country for the IPL,” Mr Dubash said. “The league is immensely popular with a huge global fan base. The fact that the league also coincides with summer holidays in India also bodes well,” he told SuperSport.
Speaking about the IPL’s success in grabbing worldwide attention, Mr Dubash said: “It is attributable to several factors, including the fact that the on-the-field action in it was truly world class. In most developed economies of the world, live sports play a very integral part of the family experience, be it a National Basketball Association game or an English Premier League game on weekdays or at weekends.
“In a similar vein, I think a void in terms of live entertainment was more than adequately filled by the IPL as it combined some of the best cricket talents in the world with the next generation of Indian talent – everything packaged into a highly entertaining three-hour roller-coaster of fun, excitement, and adrenalin-packed cricket action. That is exactly the reason why the IPL managed to capture the imagination of an entire nation, and more importantly the world.”
Mr Dubash claimed that the IPL had brought in a whole lot of financial benefits. “The IPL’s success has provided monetary rewards – apart from honour and pride – not only to the players but to the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the cricketing fraternity as a whole. At modest estimates, the IPL involves around a total of $ 2.5 billion in terms of overall revenue. But the BCCI has stressed from the very beginning that money earned through the IPL will be ploughed back into the game,” he said.
The IPL publicist also informed the Press that an elite team of 15 former players would be the commentators for the event.
Heading the list will be Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and Ramiz Raja and assisting them will be Arun Lall, Simon Doull, Pommie Mbangwa, Kepler Wessels, L Sivaramkrishnan, Robin Jackman, Danny Morrison, Ranjit Fernando, Alastair Campbell, Abbas Ali Baig, Greg Blewett and Jeremey Coney.
Source – thestatesman.net