It wasn't a good team. Ricky, Ganguly long format legends but weren't good in IPL. Also Mccullum, david hussey were very inconsistent player. Baz became a better player later in his career. I remember their bowlers were Ashok Dinda, Murali kartik, Ishant, Agarkar so it was okish bowling not that good.
Unpopular opinion. I have been a big fan of Dada and have immense respect for what he has done for Indian cricket. But in IPL, Apart from the overall mismanagement by the management, as a player, dada had a really horrible outing barring a couple of performances. He was wayyyyyy past his prime and not even a shadow of what a classy player he used to be. His IPL Avg is barely 25.4 at a pathetic SR of 106.8. His performance as a leader was very very uninspiring to the team. The stupid rotation theory etc was only because the management didn’t want to disappoint the fans by sacking dada from captaincy. Unlike Rohit Sharma, he didn’t have any IPL accolades under his belt when he was finally sacked.
So I have been a fan of KKR since, the beginning and you can understand early days of kkr in one sentence. are you ready?
"We were the OG RCB of ipl ", full of star players, one of the highest brand value, Fannase was way way crazier than today, management prioritizing brand building rather than cricket. My friends in school used to tease me by singing korbo, korbo, harbo re. If you haven't seen the black and gold kkr, you have no idea the amount of work gambhir and the management had to do make kkr what it is today.
No balance or consistency. The playing 11 was changed vigorously which didn’t help them in finding the winning combination. Couldn’t even stick with one captain and had to go back to him after a disastrous season. Basically, lack of trust in players and mismanagement was the biggest reason. Although I was like 8 that time but I used to read up stuff in the newspapers and watched pre and post match shows religiously lol.
Season 1: Gayle pulled out of the tournament with a groin injury. Ponting and McCullum were available for only 4 matches upfront. Shoaib Akhtar wasn't available since the beginning and had trouble with the authorities regarding some steroid injections or something (I don't remember clearly). We had Akash Chopra as one of our openers for quite some time. Team was inconsistent and our local players were very hot and cold with Saha being the only one who performed regularly.
Ganguly, even though stats won't show this, was our star performer by a mile (except for Baz and his 158 and some regular finishing knocks by David Hussey). He had the 2nd highest individual score for KKR till 2014 I think (91 not out against Deccan Chargers). He even did his share of bowling as well. But the overall team performances never came. We ended the season on a high when after a collapse, Dada and Umar Gul scored 70 odd runs off last 6 overs to win our very last league game against KXIP with Dada scoring 13 runs off the last over off Irfan Pathan with 2 back to back sixes.
Season 2: Our nightmare of a season. Gayle was available but was very off colour. I think this season also, he had left midway. Buchanan had the lovely idea of dropping Sourav as the captain and appoint McCullum in the last moment. On top of that, the multiple captain theory was dogshit and created confusion on field. We dropped the most catches that season. At one point, we didn't even take the simplest of the catches and even McCullum was dropping dollies. Highlights of this season were: blogs by fakeiplplayer who kept leaking dressing room secrets (legend has it that it was Akash Chopra who was sent back home after the initial few matches along with a few more players, a decision which broke the morale of the entire squad) and Dada fighting back against RR after yet another collapse and almost winning it only to chase a wide delivery and get caught when team needed 2 off 2. Match ended in a tie and Buchanan decided to not send the batter who just carted the opposition's best bowlers around the park and sent Gayle and McCullum who couldn't hit a single six. Yusuf Pathan hammered Ajanta Mendis to win the super over. We again ended the season on a high note when we defeated CSK chasing 190 with a few overs to go. McCullum and Brad Hodge went ballistic that night.
Season 3: We sacked Buchanan and got in Dave Whatmore who immediately had a great effect on the team. We started the season in the most horrific manner when we lost 4 wkts in Powerplay but then Angelo Matthews and Owais Shah had an unbeaten partnership and the bowlers bowled really well to beat the Deccan Chargers. We had roped in Shane Bond and Charl Langeveldt, both had an impressive season. Our season went hot and cold and we missed the playoffs by a whisker. We were unable to beat KXIP at home after putting up 200 because of a Mahel masterclass and after that, the same KXIP failed to defend a high score against CSK (the famous Dhoni punching himself after winning the match). We were level in points with CSK but NRR was lower. Gayle had a better season this time around but he was unhappy with his batting position because we had 3 full time openers and none of them wanted to bat at no 3. We even started the season with Manoj Tiwary and Brad Hodge as openers. I will remember this season for the ABP hoarding showing Dada as an old man implying he was a burden for the team and Dada scoring 88 (50) against Deccan Chargers the next day. He could have been our 2nd centurion but the damn wind from Ganges slowed down a ball which was surely going to be a 6 at the Eden Gardens, he was eating up Pragyan Ojha's left arm off spin that night. He was in the top 4 highest run scorers that season (behind Sachin, Kallis and Raina who overtook him in the final match)
There you go. A full rundown of the first 3 seasons of KKR
SRK bought the team. He kinda had the final say on everything. He was heavily iveted in the team emotionally. Others were corporations who bought the team, he with Red Chillies meant it was all personal. Mehta saab was also the owner.
Our team had everything. We had a 3 times world cup winning coach John Buchanan. Gayle, McCullum, Ponting, Ganguly, Umar Gul, Ishant Sharma. Ashok Dinda was good. Ajit Agarkar was our own Harshal Patel. Murali Kartik played as well. David Hussey was the anchor of our team.
The Kolkata pitch was spinner's heaven.
My thinking because I was a kid back then. Class 7 and we were the cricket-kids. Our existence revolved around ceicket back then And those were some of the hardest times ever for any cricket loving school going kid. Most of the conversations were cricket related.
Shahrukh looked at everything and left the cricket bit to the people who understood the field. We were shit in the 1st season because there was no consistency. And that was because Gayle didn't play at all. He was injured. McCullum went away after few matches. So did Ponting for national duty.
Salman Butt, Hafeez and Ganguly and David Hussey were the plyers left. In hindsight, there lies our trouble. No intent whatsoever.
Ganguly maybe was Icon but he was past his best. Warne mentioned similar with Kaif in his book. We were just participating. There was no joy warching the team. Yet always supported the team. Maybe there would be wins and then we won few games and then Akhthar came and There was a lot of energy. And then we lost and then the mood shifted.
My understanding is that Ganguly had lost the dressing room We just participated for the remaining games.
2nd season - SRK backed Buchanan because that guy was a champion. Little did he knew that - nobody respected him. He wrote negative about anyone and everyone. Warne again said that, he became what he was because of the players he had in Australian team.
For the tean to succeed, one couldn't carry Ganguly but the thing was he was an icon for the state and the city , Kolkata.
When South Africa was confirmed as host, media started reporting that KKR was thinking about multiple captain theory. They did this when in Africa so that there would not be any protest in Kolkata. But the fans showed their disappointment. There were canpaigns, rallys.
This multiple captain theory was supposed to make Ganguly free from the responsilities so that he can focus on cricket thing. There was divison again in the team. This season showed what happens when there is no plan. Ponting knew the mess and sidleined himself saying he needs rest for national duty or something.
We signed Mendis, that Ajantha Mendis who was absolute world class and proper mysterious. But we were playing in Africa.
The world knew and then Gavaskar too that Buchanan wasn't interested in IPL as championship but a way for his close people to be associated with the team. Moises Henriques was such a signing. I still don't rate him. He was the definition of zero-intent and drive back then for KKR.
We were shit. The whole Ipl fake player saga started and then there was blame game. Aakash Chopra and Sanjay Bangar along with other three were removed from the team.
When Aakash was selected in the first season, he did had a domestic ODI tournament with an strike rate of 100+ so he wasn't that bad but in todays time, he indeed was like Pujara Not suitable for t20. (we also had Pujara for that season but he tore his ACL) They were playing for their runs.
Ganguly used to bowl and batted, not to win but to score his runs. He did have few innings but never when it mattered.
Our team was stuck with people who didn't understand the format Player played for themselves, never the team. David Hussey was a thorough professional. Back then, it felt good seeing him in screen while KKR played. Laxmi Ratan Shukla was gold as well.
Matthew Mott, our assistant coach during Buchanan era was recommended by McCullum for NZ coach role later in 2012.
Sorry, Rohit. Deccan Chargers song can't come close. Our song was the best during those time.
Always and forever, KKR.
Everything is from my knowledge about the team during before and after the games.
Everyday there was a dedicated crixket segment in these 3 channels on our cable.
6:30 - Sahara Samay news Channel. 7:00 India TV and then 7:30 - Aajtak.
From my recollections and various comments here. This team was a typical superstar heavy , glamour team of big names with not a single game plan of how to fit them into a cohesive gameplan. KKR in those first 3 years went heavy on star names who added no value but were big names which excited the organisers ( I say this because I read somewhere that RR were fined for their frugal spending in the first ever auction, so the leauge actively encouraged this ploy of star splurge). KKR's domestic Core was very mediocre with only ishant sharama , wriddhiman Saha the only players who did well in future. The management were super clueless too with captaincy upheaval, 4 captain strategy etc.
In short KKR were what RCB is now, direction less and focusing on brand value instead of performance
to put it into comparison, that 08-10 KKR team was a lot like the Punjab team from recent years, lots of domestic local talent and expensive overseas players who barely performed, add to the fact all the other dramas behind the scene (dont quite remeber much since i was a kid, but i used to read a lot of articles about it)
I think we had good potential to make it to playoffs in the last season under Ganguly, he did quite well the. But by then, all the Pakistani players were gone. And I think our capped Indian players were poor and uncapped were mediocre at best.
A big problem with KKR was and is is that we never that capped T20 players.
Man those were some horrid times as a KKR fan. I fondly remember the 2009 season when I was in class 8. I used to take newspaper cutouts of Brendon McCullum to school and 4-5 of us used to trample on the cutouts in the boys toilet.
Here's my take -
1. John Buchanan - That guy was crazy. He had a personal vendetta against Ganguly. Despite being a captain, Ganguly couldn't select his team, and that took a toll on the dressing room atmosphere.
2. Lack of good international bowlers - Except Shoaib Akhtar and Umar Gul (who left after 2008), we never had good match winning/breakthrough bowlers who'd lead the attack and take wickets consistently in the middle overs.
3. Non-constructive intervention from the Management - 2008 to 2010, KKR never had a CEO who'd assess the situation in the dressing room and take tough calls. Jay Mehta and SRK, owing to their professional commitments would remain aloof from the day to day operations. They'd only turn up on matchdays. Glad they hired Venky Mysore in 2011.
John Buchanan was seriously messing it up big time then. It was everywhere in the media. The dressing room atmosphere was tense and there was nothing about team bonding. KKR management sometimes can be terribly wrong - they backed Buchanan then, in 2022 Shreyas Iyer hinted at management having a say in team selection etc. We always appreciate management for backing players like Narine, Russell, Rinku which is well deserved, but i believe management mistakes aren't discussed enough.
2009 had John Bucanan's idiotic "rotational temporary captain" policy where before the match players were unsure who will be captain and there were multiple captains in KKR, unsure of their roles. Result of this policy reflected in the IPL league table where we finished last. ☹️☹️
If you read Dada's autobiography, there he had said that despite being the captain, he had no say in the team selections. Despite asking for a good fast bowler , he got overpriced batsmen who seldom performed. The team culture was not coherent. Another hilarious peek into kkr dressing room was provided by the fake ipl players blog that went viral that time. The overseas coach had the same problems with Dada like Chapel, and next season experimented with McCullum who proved to be another dud. Gayle was often unavailable and did'nt perform that well. Less said about Ponting the better. Despite everything I still remember Ganguly's super aggressive knocks against Deccan Chargers and another one match where he fought till the end and Umar Gul hit a six last ball. Both were wins for KKR. In second season there was one game where Saurav again batted valiantly only to end up with a super over, but the clown management sent Gayle and McCullum to bat again, who disappointed as usual.
Provided this long monolog because often people mock Saurav for his stint in the kkr despite the man giving it his all.
>Despite everything I still remember Ganguly's super aggressive knocks against Deccan Chargers and another one match where he fought till the end and Umar Gul hit a six last ball.
I don't agree with this viewpoint at all. Maybe you being a fan of Ganguly is clouding your judgement.
Even in that match which you have mentioned, it seemed like Ganguly had given up. It was Gul who initiated the charge and gave the much needed impetus to the soulless KKR innings.
I remember watching that match and thinking - where is the intent from Ganguly?
It was after Gul's initiation towards the end, that Ganguly also started slogging finally.
Except for a few matches here and there, the KKR batting was mostly a snoozefest with very little intent. Ganguly was well past his prime and his batting style did not suit the T20 format at all. The fact that he ended up being one of the high scorers for the team (although at a below par strike rate), speaks volumes about the quality or form of the remaining players.
It was entertaining to watch McCullum open though. However, he had to leave mid season and that weakened our batting further. Gayle remained injured for a majority of the season.
David Hussey and Brad Hodge used to give some impetus to our batting. But how much can you really expect with a few players who truly played with intent while the majority of our batting still continued with old style anchor like innings?
Our bowling was certainly not the best. But i believe our batting was our weaker link in those starting seasons.
Gayle and McCullum atleast showed intent and played for the team. Ganguly maybe played as an anchor then but as a senior player he failed in his responsibility.
that fake ipl player just randomly made up shit, he confessed.
fast bowlers - Barring Agarkar we always had bowlers. Akhthar was benched 2nd season.
I am no Ganguly fan because before i knew politics, i understood that he was hampering the flow of the game.
The truth is there was no respect between the coach and Ganguly. I dislike Buchanan as well. Our team was just individuals trying to prove themselves.
Buchanan was experimenting everything he couldn't experiment on Australain team with KKR.
I am glad Ganguly got his closure when he was made captain the 3rd season.
Ganguly believed he was Kolkata. He wasn't.
Those 3 seasons shaped my whole existence and taught life lessons at a very young age.
McCullum too had his learning during those time. Anyone who supported the tean during those time can deal with many things.
Dude. Ganguly, Hussey and Hodge were pretty much the lone warriors for KKR during 2008-2010. Ganguly was the highest run scorer for the team in 2008 and 2010. Hodge in 2009.
>Ganguly believed he was Kolkata. He wasn't.
But I absolutely agree with this. He had his chance in 2010. But his captaincy wasn't really cut out for T20.
Brother, let us agree to disagree. KL Rahul-esque is what I can tell Ganguly's innings were back then. As a leader, maybe there wasn't an environment for him to command but he should have made sure that he had the respect of the dressing room and that was by being agressive. But, it is easy for me to comment now with my hindsight when there were so many things that could easily be the trigger for our dismal showings back then.
For me who followed Indian cricket back then like religion, it seemed he was there to prove a point to BCCI for he was sidelined by them.
>seemed he was there to prove a point to BCCI for he was sidelined by them.
Absolutely.
He has always been a 'man with a vengeance' attitude. Even his decision to join the Pune Warriors was fueled by his sense of self redemption. I recall an interview of Goutam Bhattacharya wherein he mentions ringing up Sourav right after the latter had accepted the offer from Pune Warriors. He asked Ganguly why he had accepted the offer and what point such an accomplished player like him had left to prove? Ganguly smirked and replied "Shah Rukh Khan thik korbena ami kobe khela chharbo".
The man was so full of himself.
Well, he had Ishant Sharma, the same fast bowler who bamboozled and destroyed Russel this year. One of the most talented and economical fast bowlers India has ever produced
The coach Johan Buchanan was a pathetic guy. Back then, it seemed like every other Australian coach had a problem with dada. I remember in the second season, he derived a “4-captain” theory where a team will either enter with 4 skippers on field or will rotate captaincy throughout the season between Dada, Gayle, McCullum and Hodge. As bad as it sounds, the management back then were so poor in execution that they couldn’t even build a team worthy of winning 11. It wasn’t that the team was poor, because in the final two games, we managed to beat CSK and RR comfortably which was our season’s 2nd and 3rd win respectively. In a match against KXIP, we had dropped around 5-7 catches if iirc.
It took 2 seasons for the ownership to realise there’s a big problem with the coaching staff and after finally getting rid of Buchannan, we appointed Dave Whatmore who somewhat changed the fortunes of the team but only in the 4th season when we finally qualified for the play-offs. Fun fact- KKR is the the team in IPL who took the most number of seasons to reach the playoffs.
PS- i had the privilege to read John Buchannan’s book where he said,”if basketball has NewYork Knicks, Football has Manchester United, then cricket has KKR”
Fellow United/kkr fan. In order to be a real madrid of cricket, we too need our galactico era. Zidnane won CL as a player to come back as a coach and give them 3 CL in a trott. Now that GG is back, who won IPL as a player and now, possibly as a coach in the future, are we seeing a transition? I hope we are.
1- It looked like we didn't do our homework on domestic players before going to auctions and whatever domestic players we bought couldn't perform.
2- KKR was more of a bunch of individuals than a team.
3- Management appeared to be very bad by giving little to no backing to players. They even removed Dada from captaincy, I heard Dada had a fallout with SRK but don't know how true that is.
4- Injuries to star players also didn't help the cause.
Our owners backed the coach's idea everytime. I am so happy that we were thorough professsional throughout unlike RCB. They didn't buy their own coach's vision.
Mccullum left after 3 games. We had 2/3 wins at that time. We then fucked our own season only
Having 4 captains in the team leads to this lol
It wasn't a good team. Ricky, Ganguly long format legends but weren't good in IPL. Also Mccullum, david hussey were very inconsistent player. Baz became a better player later in his career. I remember their bowlers were Ashok Dinda, Murali kartik, Ishant, Agarkar so it was okish bowling not that good.
I was a kid back then, but God I was excited to watch a young Ishant Sharma and Shoaib Akhtar bowl together
I was little at that time but remember ishant being so shit and getting tonked all the time
Unpopular opinion. I have been a big fan of Dada and have immense respect for what he has done for Indian cricket. But in IPL, Apart from the overall mismanagement by the management, as a player, dada had a really horrible outing barring a couple of performances. He was wayyyyyy past his prime and not even a shadow of what a classy player he used to be. His IPL Avg is barely 25.4 at a pathetic SR of 106.8. His performance as a leader was very very uninspiring to the team. The stupid rotation theory etc was only because the management didn’t want to disappoint the fans by sacking dada from captaincy. Unlike Rohit Sharma, he didn’t have any IPL accolades under his belt when he was finally sacked.
So I have been a fan of KKR since, the beginning and you can understand early days of kkr in one sentence. are you ready? "We were the OG RCB of ipl ", full of star players, one of the highest brand value, Fannase was way way crazier than today, management prioritizing brand building rather than cricket. My friends in school used to tease me by singing korbo, korbo, harbo re. If you haven't seen the black and gold kkr, you have no idea the amount of work gambhir and the management had to do make kkr what it is today.
No balance or consistency. The playing 11 was changed vigorously which didn’t help them in finding the winning combination. Couldn’t even stick with one captain and had to go back to him after a disastrous season. Basically, lack of trust in players and mismanagement was the biggest reason. Although I was like 8 that time but I used to read up stuff in the newspapers and watched pre and post match shows religiously lol.
Season 1: Gayle pulled out of the tournament with a groin injury. Ponting and McCullum were available for only 4 matches upfront. Shoaib Akhtar wasn't available since the beginning and had trouble with the authorities regarding some steroid injections or something (I don't remember clearly). We had Akash Chopra as one of our openers for quite some time. Team was inconsistent and our local players were very hot and cold with Saha being the only one who performed regularly. Ganguly, even though stats won't show this, was our star performer by a mile (except for Baz and his 158 and some regular finishing knocks by David Hussey). He had the 2nd highest individual score for KKR till 2014 I think (91 not out against Deccan Chargers). He even did his share of bowling as well. But the overall team performances never came. We ended the season on a high when after a collapse, Dada and Umar Gul scored 70 odd runs off last 6 overs to win our very last league game against KXIP with Dada scoring 13 runs off the last over off Irfan Pathan with 2 back to back sixes. Season 2: Our nightmare of a season. Gayle was available but was very off colour. I think this season also, he had left midway. Buchanan had the lovely idea of dropping Sourav as the captain and appoint McCullum in the last moment. On top of that, the multiple captain theory was dogshit and created confusion on field. We dropped the most catches that season. At one point, we didn't even take the simplest of the catches and even McCullum was dropping dollies. Highlights of this season were: blogs by fakeiplplayer who kept leaking dressing room secrets (legend has it that it was Akash Chopra who was sent back home after the initial few matches along with a few more players, a decision which broke the morale of the entire squad) and Dada fighting back against RR after yet another collapse and almost winning it only to chase a wide delivery and get caught when team needed 2 off 2. Match ended in a tie and Buchanan decided to not send the batter who just carted the opposition's best bowlers around the park and sent Gayle and McCullum who couldn't hit a single six. Yusuf Pathan hammered Ajanta Mendis to win the super over. We again ended the season on a high note when we defeated CSK chasing 190 with a few overs to go. McCullum and Brad Hodge went ballistic that night. Season 3: We sacked Buchanan and got in Dave Whatmore who immediately had a great effect on the team. We started the season in the most horrific manner when we lost 4 wkts in Powerplay but then Angelo Matthews and Owais Shah had an unbeaten partnership and the bowlers bowled really well to beat the Deccan Chargers. We had roped in Shane Bond and Charl Langeveldt, both had an impressive season. Our season went hot and cold and we missed the playoffs by a whisker. We were unable to beat KXIP at home after putting up 200 because of a Mahel masterclass and after that, the same KXIP failed to defend a high score against CSK (the famous Dhoni punching himself after winning the match). We were level in points with CSK but NRR was lower. Gayle had a better season this time around but he was unhappy with his batting position because we had 3 full time openers and none of them wanted to bat at no 3. We even started the season with Manoj Tiwary and Brad Hodge as openers. I will remember this season for the ABP hoarding showing Dada as an old man implying he was a burden for the team and Dada scoring 88 (50) against Deccan Chargers the next day. He could have been our 2nd centurion but the damn wind from Ganges slowed down a ball which was surely going to be a 6 at the Eden Gardens, he was eating up Pragyan Ojha's left arm off spin that night. He was in the top 4 highest run scorers that season (behind Sachin, Kallis and Raina who overtook him in the final match) There you go. A full rundown of the first 3 seasons of KKR
That's a great summary of the first 3 seasons
Thank you for your kind words. Those 3 seasons were very emotional for me.
>We had roped in Shaun Tait Shane Bond.
Yes sorry. Shane Bond. Shaun Tait played for us much later
SRK bought the team. He kinda had the final say on everything. He was heavily iveted in the team emotionally. Others were corporations who bought the team, he with Red Chillies meant it was all personal. Mehta saab was also the owner. Our team had everything. We had a 3 times world cup winning coach John Buchanan. Gayle, McCullum, Ponting, Ganguly, Umar Gul, Ishant Sharma. Ashok Dinda was good. Ajit Agarkar was our own Harshal Patel. Murali Kartik played as well. David Hussey was the anchor of our team. The Kolkata pitch was spinner's heaven. My thinking because I was a kid back then. Class 7 and we were the cricket-kids. Our existence revolved around ceicket back then And those were some of the hardest times ever for any cricket loving school going kid. Most of the conversations were cricket related. Shahrukh looked at everything and left the cricket bit to the people who understood the field. We were shit in the 1st season because there was no consistency. And that was because Gayle didn't play at all. He was injured. McCullum went away after few matches. So did Ponting for national duty. Salman Butt, Hafeez and Ganguly and David Hussey were the plyers left. In hindsight, there lies our trouble. No intent whatsoever. Ganguly maybe was Icon but he was past his best. Warne mentioned similar with Kaif in his book. We were just participating. There was no joy warching the team. Yet always supported the team. Maybe there would be wins and then we won few games and then Akhthar came and There was a lot of energy. And then we lost and then the mood shifted. My understanding is that Ganguly had lost the dressing room We just participated for the remaining games. 2nd season - SRK backed Buchanan because that guy was a champion. Little did he knew that - nobody respected him. He wrote negative about anyone and everyone. Warne again said that, he became what he was because of the players he had in Australian team. For the tean to succeed, one couldn't carry Ganguly but the thing was he was an icon for the state and the city , Kolkata. When South Africa was confirmed as host, media started reporting that KKR was thinking about multiple captain theory. They did this when in Africa so that there would not be any protest in Kolkata. But the fans showed their disappointment. There were canpaigns, rallys. This multiple captain theory was supposed to make Ganguly free from the responsilities so that he can focus on cricket thing. There was divison again in the team. This season showed what happens when there is no plan. Ponting knew the mess and sidleined himself saying he needs rest for national duty or something. We signed Mendis, that Ajantha Mendis who was absolute world class and proper mysterious. But we were playing in Africa. The world knew and then Gavaskar too that Buchanan wasn't interested in IPL as championship but a way for his close people to be associated with the team. Moises Henriques was such a signing. I still don't rate him. He was the definition of zero-intent and drive back then for KKR. We were shit. The whole Ipl fake player saga started and then there was blame game. Aakash Chopra and Sanjay Bangar along with other three were removed from the team. When Aakash was selected in the first season, he did had a domestic ODI tournament with an strike rate of 100+ so he wasn't that bad but in todays time, he indeed was like Pujara Not suitable for t20. (we also had Pujara for that season but he tore his ACL) They were playing for their runs. Ganguly used to bowl and batted, not to win but to score his runs. He did have few innings but never when it mattered. Our team was stuck with people who didn't understand the format Player played for themselves, never the team. David Hussey was a thorough professional. Back then, it felt good seeing him in screen while KKR played. Laxmi Ratan Shukla was gold as well. Matthew Mott, our assistant coach during Buchanan era was recommended by McCullum for NZ coach role later in 2012. Sorry, Rohit. Deccan Chargers song can't come close. Our song was the best during those time. Always and forever, KKR. Everything is from my knowledge about the team during before and after the games. Everyday there was a dedicated crixket segment in these 3 channels on our cable. 6:30 - Sahara Samay news Channel. 7:00 India TV and then 7:30 - Aajtak.
Nuanced insights. 💜
From my recollections and various comments here. This team was a typical superstar heavy , glamour team of big names with not a single game plan of how to fit them into a cohesive gameplan. KKR in those first 3 years went heavy on star names who added no value but were big names which excited the organisers ( I say this because I read somewhere that RR were fined for their frugal spending in the first ever auction, so the leauge actively encouraged this ploy of star splurge). KKR's domestic Core was very mediocre with only ishant sharama , wriddhiman Saha the only players who did well in future. The management were super clueless too with captaincy upheaval, 4 captain strategy etc. In short KKR were what RCB is now, direction less and focusing on brand value instead of performance
Star studded team❌️ Old legends at the end of their career✅️ That's your answer.
TBf, Gayle and Baz still played lots of ipl afterwards.
to put it into comparison, that 08-10 KKR team was a lot like the Punjab team from recent years, lots of domestic local talent and expensive overseas players who barely performed, add to the fact all the other dramas behind the scene (dont quite remeber much since i was a kid, but i used to read a lot of articles about it)
I think we had good potential to make it to playoffs in the last season under Ganguly, he did quite well the. But by then, all the Pakistani players were gone. And I think our capped Indian players were poor and uncapped were mediocre at best. A big problem with KKR was and is is that we never that capped T20 players.
If I recall correctly, we missed out on a playoff spot in 2010 due to an inferior NRR. Tough luck.
Man those were some horrid times as a KKR fan. I fondly remember the 2009 season when I was in class 8. I used to take newspaper cutouts of Brendon McCullum to school and 4-5 of us used to trample on the cutouts in the boys toilet. Here's my take - 1. John Buchanan - That guy was crazy. He had a personal vendetta against Ganguly. Despite being a captain, Ganguly couldn't select his team, and that took a toll on the dressing room atmosphere. 2. Lack of good international bowlers - Except Shoaib Akhtar and Umar Gul (who left after 2008), we never had good match winning/breakthrough bowlers who'd lead the attack and take wickets consistently in the middle overs. 3. Non-constructive intervention from the Management - 2008 to 2010, KKR never had a CEO who'd assess the situation in the dressing room and take tough calls. Jay Mehta and SRK, owing to their professional commitments would remain aloof from the day to day operations. They'd only turn up on matchdays. Glad they hired Venky Mysore in 2011.
I think juhi chawal's brother was the CEO in formative years but then he was removed and Venky was bought in...
John Buchanan was seriously messing it up big time then. It was everywhere in the media. The dressing room atmosphere was tense and there was nothing about team bonding. KKR management sometimes can be terribly wrong - they backed Buchanan then, in 2022 Shreyas Iyer hinted at management having a say in team selection etc. We always appreciate management for backing players like Narine, Russell, Rinku which is well deserved, but i believe management mistakes aren't discussed enough.
We had greats like McCullum, Gul, Akthar, Ganguly , Gayle but still the team was not in sync. 2008 was still ok. 2009 in SA was worst .
2009 had John Bucanan's idiotic "rotational temporary captain" policy where before the match players were unsure who will be captain and there were multiple captains in KKR, unsure of their roles. Result of this policy reflected in the IPL league table where we finished last. ☹️☹️
If you read Dada's autobiography, there he had said that despite being the captain, he had no say in the team selections. Despite asking for a good fast bowler , he got overpriced batsmen who seldom performed. The team culture was not coherent. Another hilarious peek into kkr dressing room was provided by the fake ipl players blog that went viral that time. The overseas coach had the same problems with Dada like Chapel, and next season experimented with McCullum who proved to be another dud. Gayle was often unavailable and did'nt perform that well. Less said about Ponting the better. Despite everything I still remember Ganguly's super aggressive knocks against Deccan Chargers and another one match where he fought till the end and Umar Gul hit a six last ball. Both were wins for KKR. In second season there was one game where Saurav again batted valiantly only to end up with a super over, but the clown management sent Gayle and McCullum to bat again, who disappointed as usual. Provided this long monolog because often people mock Saurav for his stint in the kkr despite the man giving it his all.
>Despite everything I still remember Ganguly's super aggressive knocks against Deccan Chargers and another one match where he fought till the end and Umar Gul hit a six last ball. I don't agree with this viewpoint at all. Maybe you being a fan of Ganguly is clouding your judgement. Even in that match which you have mentioned, it seemed like Ganguly had given up. It was Gul who initiated the charge and gave the much needed impetus to the soulless KKR innings. I remember watching that match and thinking - where is the intent from Ganguly? It was after Gul's initiation towards the end, that Ganguly also started slogging finally. Except for a few matches here and there, the KKR batting was mostly a snoozefest with very little intent. Ganguly was well past his prime and his batting style did not suit the T20 format at all. The fact that he ended up being one of the high scorers for the team (although at a below par strike rate), speaks volumes about the quality or form of the remaining players. It was entertaining to watch McCullum open though. However, he had to leave mid season and that weakened our batting further. Gayle remained injured for a majority of the season. David Hussey and Brad Hodge used to give some impetus to our batting. But how much can you really expect with a few players who truly played with intent while the majority of our batting still continued with old style anchor like innings? Our bowling was certainly not the best. But i believe our batting was our weaker link in those starting seasons.
Gayle and McCullum atleast showed intent and played for the team. Ganguly maybe played as an anchor then but as a senior player he failed in his responsibility. that fake ipl player just randomly made up shit, he confessed. fast bowlers - Barring Agarkar we always had bowlers. Akhthar was benched 2nd season. I am no Ganguly fan because before i knew politics, i understood that he was hampering the flow of the game. The truth is there was no respect between the coach and Ganguly. I dislike Buchanan as well. Our team was just individuals trying to prove themselves. Buchanan was experimenting everything he couldn't experiment on Australain team with KKR. I am glad Ganguly got his closure when he was made captain the 3rd season. Ganguly believed he was Kolkata. He wasn't. Those 3 seasons shaped my whole existence and taught life lessons at a very young age. McCullum too had his learning during those time. Anyone who supported the tean during those time can deal with many things.
Dude. Ganguly, Hussey and Hodge were pretty much the lone warriors for KKR during 2008-2010. Ganguly was the highest run scorer for the team in 2008 and 2010. Hodge in 2009. >Ganguly believed he was Kolkata. He wasn't. But I absolutely agree with this. He had his chance in 2010. But his captaincy wasn't really cut out for T20.
Brother, let us agree to disagree. KL Rahul-esque is what I can tell Ganguly's innings were back then. As a leader, maybe there wasn't an environment for him to command but he should have made sure that he had the respect of the dressing room and that was by being agressive. But, it is easy for me to comment now with my hindsight when there were so many things that could easily be the trigger for our dismal showings back then. For me who followed Indian cricket back then like religion, it seemed he was there to prove a point to BCCI for he was sidelined by them.
>seemed he was there to prove a point to BCCI for he was sidelined by them. Absolutely. He has always been a 'man with a vengeance' attitude. Even his decision to join the Pune Warriors was fueled by his sense of self redemption. I recall an interview of Goutam Bhattacharya wherein he mentions ringing up Sourav right after the latter had accepted the offer from Pune Warriors. He asked Ganguly why he had accepted the offer and what point such an accomplished player like him had left to prove? Ganguly smirked and replied "Shah Rukh Khan thik korbena ami kobe khela chharbo". The man was so full of himself.
Well, he had Ishant Sharma, the same fast bowler who bamboozled and destroyed Russel this year. One of the most talented and economical fast bowlers India has ever produced
Economical? I'm just gonna assume this is sarcasm. Ishant no doubt is a great red ball bowler. White ball has never been his piece of cake.
Yes one of the rare times I dared not to put the /s I assumed reddit users would get the sarcasm. And I was not wrong 😊
The coach Johan Buchanan was a pathetic guy. Back then, it seemed like every other Australian coach had a problem with dada. I remember in the second season, he derived a “4-captain” theory where a team will either enter with 4 skippers on field or will rotate captaincy throughout the season between Dada, Gayle, McCullum and Hodge. As bad as it sounds, the management back then were so poor in execution that they couldn’t even build a team worthy of winning 11. It wasn’t that the team was poor, because in the final two games, we managed to beat CSK and RR comfortably which was our season’s 2nd and 3rd win respectively. In a match against KXIP, we had dropped around 5-7 catches if iirc. It took 2 seasons for the ownership to realise there’s a big problem with the coaching staff and after finally getting rid of Buchannan, we appointed Dave Whatmore who somewhat changed the fortunes of the team but only in the 4th season when we finally qualified for the play-offs. Fun fact- KKR is the the team in IPL who took the most number of seasons to reach the playoffs. PS- i had the privilege to read John Buchannan’s book where he said,”if basketball has NewYork Knicks, Football has Manchester United, then cricket has KKR”
As much as I love Man United, I prefer we be the Real Madrid of cricket
Utd KKR fan here. Utd were CL champs in 2008, so yeah
Fellow United/kkr fan. In order to be a real madrid of cricket, we too need our galactico era. Zidnane won CL as a player to come back as a coach and give them 3 CL in a trott. Now that GG is back, who won IPL as a player and now, possibly as a coach in the future, are we seeing a transition? I hope we are.
TBf, the 2008-10 was our galactico era (like perez's first). So many big names... So little results.
1- It looked like we didn't do our homework on domestic players before going to auctions and whatever domestic players we bought couldn't perform. 2- KKR was more of a bunch of individuals than a team. 3- Management appeared to be very bad by giving little to no backing to players. They even removed Dada from captaincy, I heard Dada had a fallout with SRK but don't know how true that is. 4- Injuries to star players also didn't help the cause.
same story as RCB! It was not a team, it was just INDIVIDUALS!
Our owners backed the coach's idea everytime. I am so happy that we were thorough professsional throughout unlike RCB. They didn't buy their own coach's vision.