@Cricket Tadka

Time for Kolkata to make bigger leap

Anoop Dubey

April 2 ,2012

                                                                                 They have one of the world's fastest bowlers (Brett Lee); they have the most destructive batsman behind Chris Gayle in world cricket (Brendon McCullum); they have the most dependable batsman in all formats (Jacques Kallis); they have the world's best allrounder in ODIs (Shakib Al Hasan). And they are one of the most popular teams in the IPL, run by owners who rarely intrude on the team management. Probably, Kolkata are most balanced team in the IPL.

                                                                                 

After the controversies and shenanigans in the initial years involving Sourav Ganguly's stubbornness and John Buchannan's radical coaching methods, Kolkata appeared more settled last year with a new captain in Gautam Gambhir. Dav Whatmore has left to coach Pakistan, and a fellow Australian Trevor Bayliss has come in as replacement. Rudi Webster has been hired as a mental skills coach to help youngsters in dealing with high-pressure situations that are frequent in the Twenty20 format. Essentially Kolkata possess the perfect package which could help them progress from the fourth position - their best in the IPL - they finished at last season. The time has come for Kolkata to shed the pretender's role.

Probably they can learn from Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, the state where the franchise has its home base. Banerjee is known for her ruthlessness, her radical decision-making and her daring - qualities that the team can imbibe if it wants to win the title.