Buchanan - Ganguly had a strenuous rapport at KKR.
In another interesting anecdote from Sourav Ganguly's autobiography, A Century Is Not Enough John Buchanan who was the coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders had a forgetful season under Ganguly's leadership and was instrumental in removing him as the captain of the side.
2009 was also the season when KKR had come up with a multiple captaincy theory which according to Ganguly came in as a surprise. “The theory came in as a surprise. That is something many of us did not have a clue of,” Ganguly had told Sportstar.
Buchanan however, in an exclusive interview with this publication — has hit back, saying that the game had passed Ganguly when the Indian Premier League (IPL) came in. “The game had passed him (Ganguly). In fact, it had passed a lot of players. Had T20 cricket come three-four years before, they would have been in a far better position to play,”
The Australian coach admitted that Ganguly did not have his support as a captain or as a player. “That was always an issue with Sourav as he knew that he did not have my support in T20 cricket. "But I had a lot of respect for him as a person, as an Indian icon, as a person who would be very valuable to Knight Riders, but not necessarily as a player,” Buchanan said, adding: “So, I can only presume that his (recent) comments (in the book A Century Is Not Enough) are possibly somewhat covered by my view on his game as it was in 2008-2009.”
“I certainly believe that Sourav had a role to play in Knight Riders, but I just did not feel that in terms of the T20 format and how Sourav was playing. This again has something to do with physical, technical and mental aspects of the game" Buchanan added.
While KKR had a less than favorable outing in 2009, it was the fight between Ganguly and Buchanan that hogged the headlines. Even though Ganguly returned to KKR as the skipper in the third edition, Buchanan had a rather unceremonious exit.
This turbulent episode from Ganguly's playing career finds a space in his autobiography which is filled with many such moments which define Ganguly's career both as a captain and a player.