KOLKATA, May 22: There were controversies galore when Brendon McCullum took over the reins of Kolkata Knight Riders from Sourav Ganguly for the second season of the Indian Premier League. With KKR finishing rock bottom on the IPL table acquiring just seven points, it only suggests that the move made matters worse for the team.

According to a section of team members, the result could well have been better had the captaincy remained undisturbed. "Things wouldn’t have been so bad if Dada (Sourav) was our skipper," was what Wriddhiman Saha and Ashok Dinda said after returning from a forgettable campaign on Friday.

Although senior pro Laxmi Ratan Shukla preferred not to comment on the issue, Saha and Dinda were very open with their support for the ex-India skipper.

"For us, it’s much easier to approach Dada than McCullum. Not only does he know us better, but also possesses certain characteristics of an ideal captain.

"On areas such as planning and formulation of strategies, I don’t think many can match him.

"At the same time, he’s well aware of our positive and negative points and thus, could have spurred us to perform at our best," Saha pointed out.

Importantly, both Saha and Dinda were highly impressive in the inaugural IPL when KKR were led by Ganguly and came close to securing a berth in the national team.

In the ongoing edition, the Bengal wicketkeeper didn’t get many opportunities to showcase his talent further after missing the first phase with a finger injury. For pacer Dinda, things went awry this time as he was far from accurate in almost all matches barring the final outing against Shane Warne’s men.