The Fake IPL player in his blog addressed John Buchanan as "Bhukha-naan". That literally means "hungry for bread". Some said that it bordered on the ridiculous but many  of his previous associates said that it was an appropriate definition for the former Aussie super-coach. However before delving into his appetite let me make it clear at this point that the former Aussie coach is also the former Kolkata Knightriders coach, now. He will not land with his entrouge of 14 coaches 4 months ahead of the next IPL to conduct camps in Kolkata. Shahrukh Khan has begun remedial measures for the team by launcing a hunt for a new coach.

Buchanan has been an Australian coach between 1999 and 2007, a highly successful period  during which the cricket team won three of four Ashes series they contested and two cricket World Cups. So did he make a team of superheroes? Well, the answer is a clear NO...It did not require a Buchanan to make a Steve/Mark Waugh, a Gilchrist, a Hayden, a McGrath, a Warne, a Ponting and the rest of the stars. It simply was a generation when the cup of talent in Australian cricket overflowed. Buchanan was incidental and the Aussie coach himself has admitted that his presence did not add to their cricketing acumen but may have helped in some other way. Shane Warne has never been a fan of John Buchanan, chosing always to criticise the coach’s techniques and even saying that the club cricketers need coaching and not the international cricketers.
So what then was the role of John Buchanan with the Australians? It was more managerial, less technical. Which also explains why his role as the Director of coaching of Kolkata Knightriders back-fired.  Buchanan’s credentials had not truly been tested until he set foot in the City of Joy. Two years at the helm only resulted in the team slipping from the 6th to the last place in IPL 2. And so the result-oriented, charming owner of the team had decided to select Buchanan out of the Knightriders equation.

However the England Cricket Board is still convinced that Buchanan’s unconvetional ways can help bring about spectacular changes to a game which has plummeted in the popularity charts. So he has been appointed as a consultant to the senior team and the English Lions. Perhaps the first reflection of the English team adopting the Super coach’s ways was their visit to the war memorial in Belgium. It was touted as a bonding expercise but ended up in being a PR diaster!

Ricky Ponting surely will be uneasy if he were to see Buchanan in England shirt but he will have to be convinced about the fact that talent alone makes the difference and not a coach. Who better than him understands this!

Questions have been raised about Buchanan’s split loyalties and John Buchanan may be in the best position to answer that. For the moment, the English will have to deal with the eccentricities of John Buchanan. A visit to boot camp may be followed by several other non-conventional ideas which may necessarily not be to improve the game.

Perhaps it is early days so the English are not realising KKR’s bitter experiences of having had  Buchanan at the helm. However by now any practical man in England will know that the two ideas of winning the Ashes and having Buchanan call the shots do not meet! So it’s the home turf and the firepower of Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff is all the English have to bank on. Falling back on Buchanan’s ways may prove to be fatal!

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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