Indian Premier League

SRK hits back at Gavaskar

Reacting to Sunil Gavaskar’s harsh criticism of Kolkata Knight Riders’ head coach John Buchanan’s idea of having multiple captains during a match, team owner Shah Rukh Khan jumped to his rescue, asking the former Indian captain to stay away from his team’s affairs.

“I respect Mr Gavaskar – his knowledge about cricket is a billion times better than me,” Shah Rukh said. “But this is an era where Mr Gavaskar has not indulged in, nevertheless his knowledge about the game does allow him to make comments.”

The Bollywood superstar added, “This is a new format that’s being tried out. Please give it some breathing space. I am the owner of the team, I bought it. If he wants to implement something then let him buy a team.”

In his column in Sunday’s Hindustan Times, Gavaskar said that the Indian media gave undue importance to Buchanan, who he said is a failed first-class cricketer making a living telling international players to do what he couldn’t do.

Buchanan’s multi-captain theory – of having three or four captains in a single Twenty20 game, drew criticism from a majority of cricket pundits, as well as Kolkata’s regular captain Sourav Ganguly, although Kumar Sangakkara and Ricky Ponting thought the idea was worth experimenting.

Tags: IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders, srk, sunil gavaskar