Six deadly sins that led to Buchanan's downfall
Captaincy confusionBuchanan did not name a captain till the last minute. Instead of being honest with Ganguly on why he did not feel he was the right choice as captain, Buchanan tried to beat around the bush by floating theories like four-captains. The whole fiasco caused Ganguly a lot of heartburn.
Wrong skipperHis choice of McCullum as captain was disastrous. It did no good to the team or to McCullum. The New Zealander found the pressure too much to handle. The biggest casualty was his batting. He was the main batsman and as his batting fell apart and so did the team.
Huge entourage Buchanan's entourage of support staff was huge, including an asst coach, bowling coach (Andy Bichel), fielding coach, wicket-keeping coach, physio and trainer. It defied logic to have such a large set of coaches for a tournament where there was no time to train. Naturally, Buchanan's decision was questioned.
Poor motivatorAs the team kept losing, the morale of the side took a serious beating. Things went out of control as the local India players felt alienated from the team management, dominated by the foreigners. Buchanan failed to control the situation and unite the side. It was his biggest failure.
No confidenceThe KKR players have said that they were not given enough confidence. They were discarded without getting enough chances to settle down. Sanjay Bangar and Aakash Chopra were sent back after limited opportunities while quite a few players were never tried at all.
Flawed selectionTheir selection was flawed in the first place. Mashrafe Mortaza was picked for a whopping $6,00,000 and then left to cool his heels in the dug out. He was given only one chance at the end of the tournament. Sanjay Bangar and Aakash Chopra's selection too was strange.