For someone who is rated as the best Indian captain ever, Sourav Ganguly, now retired from international cricket, must be wondering how he could have offended John Buchanan, the coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders.  

The former Australian coach would have to admit that the vibes with ‘Dada’ were not encouraging when the Kolkata man was India’s captain in Australia in 2003-04. At his best Ganguly can be belligerent and at his worst he can be provocative. When he made that magnificent century in Brisbane in the first Test of that rubber, which was eventually shared by the two teams, Ganguly was treated with respect by the Australians. Even someone as hard-as-nails Steve Waugh realised that the Indian captain was the sort who would not take anything lying down.

The owner of this Indian Premier League (IPL) team, Shahrukh Khan, has been embarrassed by Buchanan’s suggestion that there should be more than one captain. But having contracted the Australian, who has excellent coaching credentials, he has had to be diplomatic.

As far as the actor-cum-owner is concerned, Ganguly is the captain and this implies there is a lot of tightrope walking to be done. What Buchanan wanted to achieve by this novel suggestion is something few are able to understand. But then he has been unorthodox in some ways too.

Something would have to give sooner than later. Either Buchanan or Ganguly would survive when the third edition of the tourney gets under way next year. Let us have odds.