Australia skipper Ricky Ponting says there is “some merit” in Kolkata Knight Riders coach John Buchanan’s proposal to have multiple captains within the team in this month’s Indian Premier League (IPL).

Buchanan, one of cricket’s most lateral-thinking and controversial coaches, stepped down as Australia’s mentor after helping guide Ponting’s team to a successful one-day international World Cup defence in the West Indies in 2007.

Ponting had been due to play for Kolkata in the five-week IPL season, which starts on April 18. But the Australian batsman, who would be available to play in the last two weeks of the tournament, has opted to spend time at home with his family.

Australia’s busy year continues in June with the Twenty20 World Cup followed by the Ashes series in July, both in England.

Ponting will miss out on the chance to share the captaincy/”strategist” roles of the Kolkata side with other big names such as India’s Saurav Ganguly, West Indian Chris Gayle, New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum and Australia’s Brad Hodge and David Hussey.

Ganguly, who was Kolkata’s IPL captain in 2008, has spoken out against the idea and claims he wasn’t consulted, although Buchanan denies this.

“I heard the other day he was actually talking about having a couple of captains on the ground at once. I don’t know how that’s going to work,” Ponting told AAP this week.

“But I know Tassie actually experimented with that a few years ago.

“They had Dan Marsh and George Bailey. One was doing the field placings and one was doing the bowling changes.

“So it just sort of lightened the load up I guess on the actual captain on the field and gave him a bit more opportunity to think about different things.

“I don’t see there’s a lot of problems with it.

“The more experience you can get into a lot of guys as far as leadership goes can only benefit your group.

“But it seems like it’s a bit more of a sensitive situation at the moment with Sourav (Ganguly) being captain and maybe not wanting to give up that actual role, which you can understand as well.

“I think there is some merit in it. We’ll see how it works at the end of this IPL.”

After announcing his plan last month for multiple captains, Buchanan has since fine-tuned his proposal and says he wants one captain and “four to five core experts” who will act as “strategists”.

“These coaches or strategists will assist the one captain on field with their viewpoints on the game plan set earlier or shoot from the hip as the case maybe,” a Kolkata team statement said.

“The captain for the team is one and only one as in the case of most sports. Just the roles which are there in the regular format of the game as the fielding expert, batting coaches, are being better defined to be able to give quick suggestions …

“All internal decisions are taken collectively by the core cricketing team which comprises John, Sourav, Matthew Mott (assistant coach) and a few others.”
Source – news.theage.com.au