LAHORE: Indian film star Shah Rukh Khan, who is owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders, has hit back at former India cricket captain Sunil Gavaskar’s comments about his franchise coach John Buchanan, and asked Gavaskar to stay away from issues concerning his Indian Premier League (IPL) team. In his column for the Hindustan Times, Gavaskar termed Buchanan a ‘failed former cricketer making a living telling international players to do what he couldn’t do”. It has not gone down well with the IPL franchise, which last week tried to put a lid on the controversy generated by Buchanan’s theory of multiple captains by releasing a statement that during a game the team would resort to a group of ‘strategists’ who would report to one on-field captain while making decisions.Shah Rukh has come to Buchanan’s defence, saying there was a marked difference in the time Gavaskar played and now. “I respect Mr Gavaskar – his knowledge about cricket is a billion times better than me,” Shah Rukh told media in Mumbai. “But this is an era where Mr Gavaskar has not indulged in; nevertheless his knowledge about the game does allow him to make comments. This is a new format that’s being tried out. Please give it some breathing space. I am the owner of the team, I bought it. If he wants to implement something, let him buy a team.” Gavaskar was scathing of Buchanan in his column, saying the former Australian coach had a way with words in India, a country Gavaskar said had few people capable of defusing opinion makers. Buchanan’s radical theory had stirred a controversy on the eve of the team’s departure to South Africa, forcing a nearly four-hour long meeting between Buchanan, Sourav Ganguly, Shah Rukh and Jai Mehta, who owns a stake in the team. A subsequent statement released by Kolkata stressed that there would be only one captain, who would be fed with suggestions from this core group of strategists
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