John Buchanan on Wednesday said he was “shocked and disappointed” at being sacked as the Kolkata Knight Riders’ coach by franchise owner Shah Rukh Khan because the actual deal was to build the team over five years.
Buchanan could not help the team’s cause in the first two years of the Indian Premier League and the KKR finished bottom-placed in the second season while courting maximum number of controversies, including the Australian’s multiple-captaincy theory.
“We were trying to build something over five years but Shah Rukh Khan, had a change of direction and I was told I was no longer needed. That was a shock and a disappointment,” he said.
Buchanan felt Sourav Ganguly, who captained the team in the inaugural season, was not up to the pace demanded by the game, which resulted in their losing the close matches.
“(Sourav) Ganguly was the icon player and the captain of the outfit and I told him I didn’t believe he was up to the pace of the game. We got to the last over in nine games and lost them, getting to the last ball five times and losing,” he was quoted as saying by the Courier Mail .
