That Kolkata Knight Riders ended their third edition of the Indian Premier League on a winning note must have given team owner Shah Rukh Khan and skipper Sourav Ganguly some satisfaction.
That Kolkata Knight Riders ended their third edition of the Indian Premier League on a winning note must have given team owner Shah Rukh Khan and skipper Sourav Ganguly some satisfaction.
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| End of the road? KKR skipper Sourav Ganguly may not lead the side in the fourth edition of the IPL. |
But it was a small consolation. In three years of the tournament, Knight Riders remain the only team to have not reached the semis, and the disappointment was quite palpable in Shah Rukh and Ganguly's reactions on their last day of the season.
Even though Ganguly was his team's main performer in the third IPL, the fact is that he has been the skipper in two of their three failed campaigns. It has naturally put a question mark over the former India skipper's future with the club. On his way back to the pavilion after getting out against Mumbai yesterday, the manner in which he took a moment to raise his bat to his beloved crowd, suggested something was amiss. Could this be his last innings as player for Kolkata Knight Riders? Neither Shah Rukh, nor Ganguly were committal on the latter's role in the future.
When asked if Ganguly would return next year to play for KKR, Khan said that it was entirely Ganguly's decision.
"I cannot dictate tou00a0 him," the KKR owner said succinctly. But Ganguly was more receptive to the query and said that he is attached to KKR and the Eden Gardens crowd. "I will come back for them in a different manner," he added. Whether Dada returns as skipper or in a 'different manner' is not known.The former India captain who amassed 493 runs with four half centuries in this edition of the IPL termed the two losses to Kings XI Punjab and Royal Challengers Bangalore as the key reasons for them missing out on a semi-final berth. "I am disappointed we couldn't reach the semis.
The match against Punjab particularly keeps haunting me. We lost that match despite scoring 200 runs," he said. "Also, against RCB we were in a position of strength. However, we let the match slip away from our grasp," he added.
