The Gayle Force Does It Again

On yet another overcast day in South Africa, two teams who were being written off after their first matches, squared off against each other with each hoping desperately to avoid defeat. Both teams would have been aware that this was a match they had to win to regain credibility with their supporters.

Brendom McCullum won the toss, and opted to field. For Kolkata, there was still no Mendis in the playing eleven, although they made one change - dropping Agarkar for rookie Yashpal Singh. Punjab retained the same eleven that played against Delhi.

Kolkatta started off well, with Ishant Sharma finding his rhythm and getting Karan Goel caught in the slips by Chris Gayle in his first over. That brought Irfan Pathan to the crease, who was promoted to No.3. Irfan swung his bat lustily and was looking ominous, when Sourav Ganguly turned things around for his team with a superb first over that saw him pick up two wickets and beat Yuvraj's bat a couple of times.

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Kolkata Knight Riders finally end farcical rotating captaincy

By BL Nguyen
Finally, the Kolkata Knight Riders have ended the madness surrounding the concept of multiple captains. And not before time either.

The idea was always a recipe for disaster, and coming from anyone other than John Buchanan, would not have been entertained for a minute. However, with such a successful record in international cricket, Buchanan's theories have always carried more weight because of Australia's dominant run in the last decade, no matter how preposterous. Clearly, the pundits of the cricket world have not given enough consideration to the fact that Buchanan's arrival as coach also coincided with the arrival of Adam Gilchrist and the destruction he wrought on opposition attacks, particularly in his first 30 months, when his Test average hovered at 60, as well as the decline of the opposition bowling, while Warne and McGrath continued as strong as ever.

While some Australian football teams have had multiple captains, it is a sport in which the players all move at high speed and cannot give directions to many others at the same time. Instead, the coach orders a staff member to run onto the field while play is proceeding to instruct individual players, making the captain tactically obsolete. On the other hand, the exact opposite applies in cricket. For those who believe that the coach is more important than the captain, ask the plethora of players who have played under the leadership of Shane Warne and Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
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