Sourav Ganguly will likely lead the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for the second edition of the IPL, but unlike last year he will not have the final call. He will be assisted by a team of four or five ‘core experts’ in various departments of the game.

Sourav, who was in the city on Tuesday, met with team coach John Buchanan and KKR co-owner Jay Mehta at Mannat, Shah Rukh Khan’s residence. Though the details of the meeting were not discussed, it is clear that the deliberations were to iron out the captaincy issue that sparked outrage after Buchanan’s ‘multiple captain’ theory.

The KKR management in a statement said that “the idea is to have a set of strategists as is always the case classically in cricket… who will form a team of 4 or 5 core experts in the field of fielding, bowling, batting and data etc. These strategists will assist the one captain on field with their viewpoints on the plan set earlier or shoot from the hip as the case maybe.”

A team official on conditions of anonymity further added that “the intent of today’s meeting was to keep the team’s plan where it was. And that is that the decision-making process is a shared one. As far as Sourav is concerned, he is a senior who was the captain last year and we want to make sure that he stays in a respectable position.

“All internal decisions are taken collectively by the core team, which comprises John, Sourav, Matthew Mott and a few others and there is no dissent on that ever.” A squad of 15 KKR players will leave for Johannesburg from Mumbai on Wednesday.
Source – hindustantimes.com