Sourav Ganguly had retired from international cricket in 2008, the same year the first edition of the Indian Premier League was announced. Being from Kolkata, it was natural that Kolkata Knight Riders franchise chose him as their icon player and captain.
Unfortunately, KKR didn’t manage to do well in the tournament, despite their amazing victory in the very first game of the tournament against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Under Ganguly’s captaincy, KKR finished in the 6th position.
Coach John Buchanan opted for the much controversial and now much-criticized split captaincy option for the next IPL season in 2009, with Ganguly sharing the leadership duties with Brendon McCullum. The decision did not go down well with Ganguly who continued to struggle with the bat and KKR finished with a wooden spoon in the 2nd season.
Sourav Ganguly was past his prime when IPL stepped in: John Buchanan
KKR’s misery continued in IPL 2010 as well and Buchanan, along with Ganguly was let go from the franchise, which went for a complete overhaul ahead of the 2011 edition of the league. Buchanan has since said that Ganguly was not a T20 player and his game didn’t suit the format.
“My thinking at the time was, as a captain, you needed to be able to make quick decisions and your game needed to be suited to the shorter format, and that’s why I had those conversations with Sourav,” Buchanan told Sportstar.
“I just couldn’t believe he was suited to the format of the game and certainly not in a formal captaincy role,” the former Australia coach added.
Buchanan still defends his split captaincy idea which landed KKR in deeper trouble. 
“I think it’s too much for one person to actually understand all the set of plays that you need to put in place, all the various decisions you need to make, reasonably quickly. And really where it was going to was to have everybody as a leader,” Buchanan said.
Aakash Chopra reveals John Buchanan didn't want Sourav Ganguly as KKR captain
“In other words, you are saying split captaincy, but you want everybody to be a leader on the field. These days all the bowlers are in charge of every delivery that they make. All batters make decisions out there without necessarily the inputs of the captain and the coaches. I think that is where the strength of the team lies,” he added.
Meanwhile, Dinesh Karthik will lead the KKR franchise who have Brendon McCullum as their head coach in the upcoming IPL 2020, which will be played in UAE since September 19 onwards.
