Former New Zealand captain and Chennai Super Kings team member Stephen Fleming will take over as the coach of the IPL team after Kepler Wessels’ contract was not renewed by CSK team management. Last year, Rajasthan Royals became the first team to appoint Shane Warne as their captain-cum-coach and the results were tremendous with RR winning the title last year. Maybe this has led to CSK management also think of appointing Fleming for the coach-cum-player role though M S Dhoni will still lead the side. Though Fleming did not have an exceptional IPL season 1 but the Chennai Super Kings management has praised his tactical insight.
However, he added that he will take inputs from Mahendra Singh Dhoni in his job as he thinks him to be a great captain. He said that they helped each other in IPL 1 and they will work together in IPL T20 season 2 too. He said that the most difficult part of his job would be to choose the best four for each game as they have a great bunch of international players. But when asked about Buchanan’s multiple captaincy theory, he said that it sounded too ‘complicated’.
What are your opinions on this decision. Is Fleming the right man for the coaching job?
Ricky Ponting thinks that there is some merit in John Buchanan’s theory of multiple captains for Kolkata Knight Riders. Buchanan had created a huge controversy a few days ago by suggesting that there would be several captains in the KKR IPL team. But later on he mellowed down his tone and said that there will be only one captain and four strategists. However, this was quick shocking for the Indian masses especially the people of West Bengal as they cannot see Sourav Ganguly sharing his captaincy with others. It received opposition from several quarters in the cricket fraternity but there were some takers too. Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakarra said that he was open to such an idea. Now the latest one to join the club is Australian captain Ricky Ponting who thinks there is some merit in Buchanan’s theory. Notably Buchanan was also the coach of the Aussie team during their World Cup win in 2007. Ponting also said that multiple captains would reduce the work load of captaincy and might help enhance the team performance. But he also said that a strategist would be more suitable because multiple captains cannot decide field placements easily.
It is also noteworthy that Ricky Ponting is a member of the Kolkata Knight Riders team but will not play IPL T20 season 2 as he has decided to spend some time with his family during the two weeks in which he is available. Let us wait and see how the multi-strategists theory works out.
It has now been officially announced by the Kolkata Knight Riders that there will be only one captain of Kolkata Knight Riders and there would not be multiple captains as declared earlier. This declaration was made after Sourav Ganguly and KKR coach John Buchanan had a four hour long meeting with the owner of KKR and bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan. The multi-captaincy theory made by John Buchanan had attracted a lot of controversy and protests especially in West Bengal. Though Sourav Ganguly has been declared as the only official captain of the KKR team but it has also been announced that there would be a group of advisers or strategists who would guide Ganguly in taking his decisions. These members including Ganguly and Buchanan would comprise the core cricketing team which will give quick suggestions.
Though the statements made by KKR did not mention who exactly would lead the team but it is supposed that Ganguly would be retained as the captain of KKR team.
Sri Lankan captain and member of IPL team Kings XI Punjab Sangakkara feels that Buchanan’s captaincy idea can help in the evolution of cricket. John Buchanan who is the the coach of IPL T20 team Kolkata Knight Riders had suggested that there would be division of duties within four captains in the KKR team. Buchanan concept for Indian Premier League season 2 had made him a source of hatred in Kolkata and West Bengal as the local people could not accept the fact that the powers of the Prince of Kolkata Sourav Ganguly would be diluted. Buchanan had given the suggestion that KKR players like Chris Gayle, Brendon Mccullum and David Hussey should be given captaining responsibility alongside Dada.
Though Buchanan did not find much support amongst the Indian public with his new idea but Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara feels that the concept is quite good. He believes that this concept might come in handy for T20 cricket as the evolving nature of the game requires changes in various aspects including captaincy. However, Sangakkara also said that there might be several problems too in such a concept as four different captains might have ego clashes in the field which might be harmful for the team.
Meanwhile, IPL 2 has not been very helpful for the Indian icons with many of the franchisees stripping the Indian captains of their captaincy. Gilchrist will be the full time captain of Deccan Chargers team in IPL T20 season 2 after the DC franchisees replaced VVS Laxman with Gilly last year. Vijay Mallya’s Bangalore Royal Challengers have dropped Dravid as the captain of the team and instead made way for Kevin Pietersen and Jacques Kallis. The justification given by most franchisees and coach is that these changes are inevitable as T20 is a more youth oriented game. However, only time and the IPL T20 season 2 will tell how these decisions turn out to be.
