Buchanan hits at uncertainty over Ganguly as KKR captain

In a surprise announcement, Kolkata Knight Riders today said they were "still discussing the issue of captaincy", hinting at uncertainty over star cricketer Sourav Ganguly continuing as the leader of the team in the second season.

KKR cricket manager John Buchanan said they were still discussing about the team skipper for high-profile event, which has less than a month left for its start.

"We are deciding about it. We are still having discussion on the issue," Buchanan said in reply to a query as Kolkata franchise announced a 28-member squad for the second edition of the Twenty20 extravaganza.

The World Cup winning Australian coach, now in-charge of KKR, said they have almost retained the same squad having few recruitments from the camp, after announcing the team.

"Over the next couple of weeks, I will again try to prune the squad... hopefully to bring it around the number of 22 depending on how the boys progress in the next few days," Buchanan said, adding their objective in the IPL second edition is to make the summit showdown.

"From our perspective, our target goal will certainly be to make it to the the final of the series...I think that's an expectation well within our reach. That's quite realistic... For that, we have to look into the differences last year and this year."

"In terms of international players, some of the major difference will be Chris Gayle who will be available trhough out the season. Brendon McCullum, who played about four games, will also be available for the whole tournament," he said.

"We have some exciting new allrounders like Angelo Matthews from Sri Lanka, Moises Henriques from Australia. There is loss for us, in the form of Umar Gul... obviously we have to ackonwledge that.

Charl Langeveldt will be the replacement. "But we are happy that Ajantha Mendis will be with us full time. In the pace department, we have Mashrafe Mortaza. Besides this we have retained the side that played last time," said Buchanan.

"Beyond that we have contracted few youngsters selected from camp like fast bowler Anureet Singh, off-spinner Mohnish Parmar, batsman Arindam Ghosh, medium pacer Sourav Sarkar, Shoaib Sheikh and Sunny Singh," the former Australian coach added.

Asked on the supsect action of Mohnish Parmar, Buchanan said the Gujarat offie underwent some corrective measures at the National Cricket Academy.

"He (Parmar) has received some training and developed on his action at the NCA... I think they have put forward their report to the proper authority. We are waiting for the final clearance," he said. The second edition will be played between April 10-May 24.

The squad : Brendon McCullum, Chris Gayle, Ricky Ponting, David Hussey, Mashrafe Mortaza, Moises Henriques, Agnelo Matthews, Ajantha Mendis, Charl Langeveldt, Brad Hodge, Sourav Ganguly, Ajit Agarkar, Murali Kartik, Ishant Sharma, Aakash Chopra, Cheteshwar Pujara, Yashpal Singh, Iqbal Abdulla, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Wriddhiman Saha, Ashoke Dinda, Debabrata Das, Mohnish Parmar, Anureet Singh, Sourav Sarkar, Arindam Ghosh, Shoaib Sheikh and Sunny Singh.