Former India opener Aakash Chopra has admitted that Sourav Ganguly and coach John Buchanan did not enjoy a cordial relationship during their time with Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Chopra, who was part of KKR in 2008, revealed that former Australia coach Buchanan wanted Ganguly out as captain, and was successful in achieving the same. According to Chopra, things were fine between Ganguly and Buchanan at the start, but things got worse as the season progressed. KKR had a disappointing inaugural IPL, finishing sixth.

“In the first year of IPL, there was John Buchanan, Ricky Ponting was also there. Sourav Ganguly was the captain. I have seen this from close quarters – their relationship was alright to begin with, but it worsened,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.

Buchanan opined that he was in favour of 'multiple captain' theory for KKR in 2009, something which Ganguly was not in favour of. “Buchanan’s way of working was different, and Sourav had a different temperament,” Chopra added.

“In the end, he also wanted to remove Sourav Ganguly from captaincy, which actually happened the following season (in 2009 Brendon McCullum was named captain), because in the first season, the team came sixth, and then they came eighth when Sourav was not the captain.”

While McCullum replaced Ganguly as captain, the results only got worse. They finished last on the points table. Following the disastrous result, Buchanan was removed as coach and Ganguly was reinstated as captain for the following season.

“Eventually, John Buchanan had to leave. Some of the things, because I was privy to that, were overstated, like they talked about making three captains, which was not the case. But, that’s what happens. If one thing is wrong, it becomes a domino effect, other things also go wrong, and it’s said that nothing was good during his leadership,” Chopra said.

“But then, man-management, one thing that I had against him was that he gathered all his friends and associates there, the whole family had come in. There were a lot of people, I mean, that did not go down very well. On the one hand, you carefully pick and choose players, on the other hand, the whole family’s travelling with you as support staff. That was all happening," the cricketer-turned-commentator revealed.

--By A Cricket Correspondent