Dada is like The Hulk

Shah Rukh Khan believes Sourav Ganguly will be a dangerous customer to Kolkata Knight Riders' opponents in the IPL after the multiple captains controversy

Shah Rukh Khan believes Sourav Ganguly will be a dangerous customer to Kolkata Knight Riders' opponents in the IPL after the multiple captains controversy

Could these controversies surrounding Sourav Ganguly have an adverse effect on him?
I think it will have a positive effect on him. Ganguly is a fighter. He knows that I am positive about him, John Buchanan is positive about him, the team is positive about him. What people say must be hurting and disturbing him. But everytime he gets disturbed, he gets dangerous. In a way, I wish this does not happen to him. He is a grown-up person, he is an icon, he is a champion, a nice gentleman. But I also like the fact that he is like The Hulk, who says if I get angry, you may not like it.

Sourav Ganguly and Shah Rukh Khan

You have come out and supported Buchanan, but have all the reports on the excess support staff in KKR made you think again? Did an iota of doubt set in and did you tell yourself, 'hang on, could the media be right?'
There is no excess. We have nine people three or four more than perhaps everybody else. We have a support staff which is even bigger than what a country team has most certainly. But what people have not understood is that we use the support staff for doing five camps a year. I just thought that it was essential for the first year. We had a camp in January and March which was not for IPL. It was for choosing youngsters. It's a long-term thing.

The support staff members are all Australians not John's friends but people who he knows. Next year, we will chose from all over the world some guys from SA, some from Australia, NZ but all the people he knows. We have also invited a psychologist from London.

The idea is to build a virtual academy, find young talent which I have been saying from the first day. To do that, how do I find talent? We tried to have five camps out of which two flopped since they clashed with the Ranji Trophy. So obviously they (support staff) didn't take money for that. We explained to them, 'very sorry guys, we are getting only 12 instead of the 60 players we thought we would get.' We cancelled the camp and they sweetly said, 'no problem'.u00a0 We have chosen some players. Some we will play, some we will not. Some youngsters we will play two years later. My plan is to build an academy. Inshallah this support staff will become three times (bigger) next year because I will have a place to keep them. I don't know whether I will fail or succeed.

I can afford it. There is a reason for the (big) support staff. It's not only for the IPL. In fact, it's the least for the IPL matches. I am looking at training 100 people at every camp. There could be Knight Riders 'A', Knight Riders 'B' etc.

If you were to choose between being the team that won the IPL and the team that made the most money, which would you choose?
I would give my life to win. We made the most money because our players didn't play last year so we didn't pay them. We did not make the money because of the profits. Players like McCullum, Ponting, Gayle went away so we didn't pay them all the money. All that money got saved. This time we will have most of the players 80 to 90 per cent of the time. Inshallah this time we will make money too because central sponsorship is much more.

Can you understand what Gavaskar's problem with Buchanan is? He's gone after him before too...
I don't know. I spoke to Gavaskar saab. I sent him a message after that. My retort to him was not about 'you buy your own team'. I want to clarify that. I never meant him. I said give us a chance.
If Gavaskar says something about cricket, we should follow it. He is my idol. In fact, one of the few idols I have in life is Gavaskar. So I would listen to what he says. Once I have explained it to him, he understands it too. What personal issues he has (with Buchanan), I don't know. I don't know the personal issues actors have with me or the film industry have with each other. How am I going to know what cricketers have with each other? It's for them to sort out. They are old enough.

How do you motivate your team?
I give them lectures and speeches which I won't sms this time. Last time, they got leaked and these were after a couple of games which we lost. These were not losing thoughts. These were personal thoughts. It was meant for the guys, the youngsters all of them are younger than me to take it back someday and remember, 'you know, that guy said this?'

'Let's learn how to lose and not be losers' is my main line to them.u00a0 So I think about a thought the day before (a game) and cheer them up. I am also in a way a translator. With this whole thing that we have so many trainers, we have Australians also. English to Hindi becomes a problem for some of the guys so I do the Hindi bit. I do the Hindi-English bit so that David Hussey and Brendon McCullum understand and I say it Hindi so everybody else also understands.

I try bit of Bengali too, but it doesn't work (laughs). People tell me if I walk into a place I bring positivity with myself. It is also important for them to know that the owner one of the owners at least u00e2u0080u0093 even Juhi (Chawla) and Jai (Mehta) does the same is interested. When we walk in, we are not depressed that we have lost. We are there to tell them guys c'mon go for it. I hear reports, 'Shah Rukh in discussion with Ganguly'. We never discuss cricket. It is not my job. John sends me an e-mail, Sourav sends me sms, the staff sends me messages. I don't even read it. I will just go and do my job. I go and do a dance for them I teach them how to do an Indian dance. Hopefully, we will be able to party enough but the matches are too close. In May, we have a gap, so we will party then and make sure all the guys are motivated to win.

The other teams feel KKR is a controversial team. Do you give a fig?
I don't want to question anyone. We are a famous team. And with fame comes a bit of controversy. Instead of looking at it as a controversial side, I would like to see it is a side which everybody wants to talk about good and bad. I think, and I am not being cheap when I say this, people talk about KKR a little bit more than they talk about the other teams. And this season inshallah we will give them more reason to talk by winning the championship.

How has your understanding of cricket got better with your involvement in the IPL?
I have been a sportsman. I used to play cricket at a nice level. Of course, I could not play it like a sportsman school bhi karte the, cricket bhi karte the. I know cricket pretty well actually. I get embarrassed because all these guys are around and I don't say much. But when they are saying things, I am on the same plane.

I know more players now but cricket-wise I have some suggestions and I keep them to myself but when I hear it (from them) I feel very happy that I was thinking about the same thing.

Do you want to run KKR like an English Premier League football club where the coach is supreme and the captain not so important?
It's not true that the captain is not important. I am hoping to make it like the football clubs. It is a standard we are trying to follow. Obviously it is cricket and it is different in India so we make those changes. Earlier, only players were known. Then teams got known like Man U and Chelsea and the third string was when they were looking for stars.

The strategy of the game is the star. The winners are the stars. So the focus shifts from the players to the team name and now to the coaches.u00a0 All three of them are stars. And within the players, obviously the captain is very important. But soccer has less importance for a captain in a certain sense because when the game starts, it is so fast-paced that the coaches have to take decisions for the players. And it is here where this whole multiple captains theory comes in. This (T20) game is much faster than Test cricket. It is not as fast as soccer, but it's much faster than Test cricket so maybe the coaches will have tou00a0 play a larger role because they can see it from outside more objectively. It is simple logic but people don't seem to understand it.

Does Ganguly have a problem with multiple captains?
Strangely, we have always had multiple captains for even Test matches.

Ajit Agarkar was the KKR bowling captain last year for four matches. Umar Gul was bowling captain for five of our matches. This is a concept which has been there for years. It is unsaid. Similarly, we have a batting captain which normally is the declared captain. You have a fielding captain also. I think Kumar Sangakkara was the fielding captain for Punjab. He would help Yuvraj so that everyone takes part in this on-field energy. I personally believe it is a good thought to give leeway to and I truly believe we should give it our best shot.

Last year, we failed with a more traditional approach, but we didn't have time. This year we had time. Failure is the scariest thing but the one great thing about failure is that once you fail, the fear is gone. Itu00a0 can teach you to either get completely wimped out and disturbed or give you a feeling that now there is no fear of failing. We drowned trying a new dive. My philosophy is, 'go down trying something new'.