Buchanan wants more foreign players

John Buchanan, the Kolkata Knight Riders coach, wants the IPL to allow more overseas players in a XI. Under the current rules, a franchise can have a maximum of four foreign players in a XI. There can be a maximum of 10 foreign players in the squad.

"It is a question that we have posed to the IPL a number of times, about the involvement of more [foreign] players on the field," Buchanan told Indian Express. "I have personally mentioned that a number of times. Hopefully the IPL will look at that more seriously going forward into next season and beyond.

"At the moment we have adopted a batting strategy, so that's where our international effort is. That means guys who are international bowlers, be it [Charl] Langeveldt, [Mashrafe] Mortaza, [Ajantha] Mendis... whoever, their opportunities are limited."

Kolkata have played Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum and Brad Hodge in all seven of their games so far while the fourth overseas spot has been shared by Australian allrounder Moises Henriques (two games), Sri Lankan spinner Ajantha Mendis (two games) and, most recently, the South African wicketkeeper Morne van Wyk (three games). Bangladesh allrounder Mashrafe Mortaza and South African fast bowler Charl Langeveldt have not yet played a match.

There is no indication, though, that the IPL will increase the cap to more than four overseas players. In fact, Ravi Shastri, a member of the tournament's governing council, said that the IPL had decided that there would be no more than four foreign players on the field at any given time, which meant that teams could use an overseas player as a substitute fielder only if the total number of foreign players on the field did not exceed four.

The decision was taken after the Chennai Super Kings lodged a complaint after their match against Delhi Daredevils on April 23 in Durban. Delhi used David Warner as a substitute after Manoj Tiwary broke his hand, taking the number of overseas players on the field to five, the others being Tillakaratne Dilshan, AB de Villiers, Daniel Vettori and Dirk Nannes.

KKR drops Sourav Ganguly as captain

It seems the debate over the multiple captains in the Kolkata Knight Riders team is resolved for now.

Team sources at Kolkata Knight Riders have told NDTV that Brendon McCullum will be the captain for the entire second season.

He will replace former Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly, who also led the KKR squad in the first season of the Indian Premier League.

Now, it means that McCullum will go out for the toss while Sourav Ganguly, who was expecting to stay on as captain, will only have a senior management role along with Chris Gayle.

McCullum was perhaps first choice for Shah Rukh Khan's team not just because of his skills at 20-20, but because he is available for the entire event.

KKR have been using different captains in each of their practice games in South Africa, but it's not yet clear whether this experiment has been junked or will carry on in some form even during the event.