John Buchanan

Calcutta: The Kolkata Knight Riders head of cricket operations John Buchanan threw his weight behind Brendon McCullum and said the beleaguered captain should not be singled out for the team’s abysmal performance in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

“I think one must feel that Brendon came into the tournament as captain under fire from everyone because we made some changes. So one should not blame only the captain,” Buchanan said.

“I think cricket is a team game and each one of us is responsible for our performance. Traditional sense says that the captain is responsible but, in fact, everyone is,” said the Australian who himself is under pressure after his team slumped to its seventh loss in nine matches Tuesday against the Delhi DareDevils.

Buchanan admitted the team was stuck in a rut and that he was not sure whether they would at all bounce back this year.

“It has been pretty hard for all of us. I know that we are going to get out of this. I am not sure whether it will be this time or next year. I do know that we are going to come out of this,” Buchanan said.

“All we can do is try and play well. But in terms of the things we need to improve, we will focus on one or two things rather than a range of issues. That will take time,” he told the IPL’s official website.

Buchanan said some issues needed to be discussed and felt that, to get the desired results, the Knights have to first deal with the negatives.

“There are issues which need to be discussed. We need to do consistently well as a team. We didn’t have wins and we need to win few matches. We need to remove the negatives in our way.

“As Brendon has pointed out, some of our batsmen have been doing well. Morne van Wyk has been very good. And we saw Moises Henriques coming good. These are good signs and we also have David Hussey joining us soon,” he said.

Buchanan was happy with his fast bowlers but agreed that the dropped catches haven’t done the hapless team any good.

“If you look at our bowlers, I think Ishant (Sharma) has bowled well. He has been unfortunate. Ajit Agarkar too has done well. Our fielding has been good but there have been occasions when we have let our team down by dropping few catches. But nonetheless if you look at the side there has been a lot of improvement and I think we have done some good things,” he said.

McCullum, meanwhile, has said the team would need loads of luck to come out of its nightmare in the IPL.

“I guess we need a lot of luck from here on,” a dejected McCullum said.

“We need to clock five wins. We will have to try as hard as we possibly can to get some momentum back our way and get some results in the long-term,” said the New Zealand vice-captain after the team’s defeat against Delhi DareDevils.

McCullum himself has been less than impressive in the tournament and the Knight Riders skipper had no qualms admitting that.

“I have been trying to put my heart and soul into my game, but it has not worked in the tournament so far. We have to come back to the things which we have been doing well and be positive.”