• March 22 afternoon: John Buchanan triggers speculation during a media conference, saying Kolkata Knight Riders are “still undecided on the leadership issue.”
• March 22 evening: Buchanan in a one-on-one with The Telegraph elaborates: “I’d like to approach the captaincy issue a little differently… Take a slightly different view and that has nothing to do with individuals and is certainly not intended to slight Sourav (Ganguly) in any way… I’d really like to develop leaders.”
• March 24: Sourav and Buchanan have a one-on-one. Principal owner Shah Rukh Khan breaks his silence in an SMS to The Telegraph, saying: “Won’t even comment on such (that he favours Sourav’s removal as captain) nonsense… Dada and me are too self-respecting to cater to all the write-ups… Do look at the positives, instead of negatives… We, at KKR, respect Dada’s genius.”
• March 25 afternoon: At a joint press conference with Sourav, Buchanan says that the side will have “no fixed captain as of now”. Besides Sourav, the others who could lead by rotation are Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum and Brad Hodge. Laxmi Ratan Shukla is also talked about. “I want to say if I was in Sourav’s place I would be upset,” Buchanan said. Sourav, however, said he was “not upset.”
• March 25 evening: In an email to The Telegraph, Shah Rukh clarifies: “Sourav is our main man… John Buchanan is not Greg Chappell… So please don’t compare them… We have too much love and respect for Dada as a captain, as a player and as an international sports icon.”
• March 27: In an interview to The Telegraph, Buchanan says: “I know what I’m trying to achieve. Whether Sourav agrees or not is another matter… You can’t please everybody all the time... I’m not doing it for the sake of grabbing headlines…”
• March 28: Sourav and Shah Rukh meet during the shooting of a promotional video for KKR.
• March 30: “There is no Knight Riders without Dada… We are not having four captains in one match. It’s going to be one captain in one match,” Shah Rukh announces on the sidelines of a fashion show in Mumbai.
• March 31: “As the team is not decided because of all overseas venue changes etc, we will take the call on the issue of captain, vice-captain, the team, post the sessions in South Africa, prior to the first game,” Shah Rukh says in a statement.
