'Strategy' statement adds to KKR confusion

 Kolkata Knight Riders have enthralled us all with the saga over their captaincy. On Tuesday, they claimed all was well and the issue had been resolved. But still an official captain hasn't been appointed and confusion can only lead in one direction - more speculation.So home came the leading Knight. Triumphant? At least they thought so in Kolkata. "The Knight Riders have issued a press release, so we will stick to that," was all Ganguly had to say.In possibly the understatement of the year, the Knight Riders say "the term 'multi-captains' has raised a few eyebrows and questions". All they ever wanted was to have a few 'strategists' as is classically the case in cricket. But a storm was brewing which forced owner Shah Rukh Khan to jump off the ramp straight into damage control mode."Twenty20 cricket is a new format," he said. "A new thinking will have to be thought out. I think there was a miscommunication. I was also quite taken aback when I read about it."

But since he got his generals together for a patch-up session at home, we haven't heard from anyone. Not Shah Rukh, not the now-on-now-off skipper Ganguly, and not out of the box coach John Buchanan. Does he still stand by this theory then?"We have a group of players who are going to play a tournament. We then pick a team. In that particular game, we will have a specific captain, because you have to do that. But once we are in that game, we might use four or five different captains," Buchanan had said.We hear Ganguly will be monitored closely in South Africa as captain and will have a deputy in Brendon McCullum. Clearly, his fiery response turned the tables on Buchanan."We all can have views," he said. "Tomorrow, we can jump up and say we need four coaches, we need 10 coaches. Tomorrow Shah Rukh can say we need three owners. These are all opinions. At the end of the day we will have to see what works for the team."

But confusion remained in the press statement where the Knight Riders urged the media to let them get on with "the more important aspect of getting together the best team to play in the tournament". But were we ever in the way?a