SRK lashes at Gawaskar,"I am the owner of the team, and I bought it."

Shah Rukh Khan, owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders, has hit back at Sunil Gavaskar over his comments about franchise coach John Buchanan, and asked Gavaskar to stay away from issues concerning his IPL team.

In his editorial for the Hindustan Times newspaper, Gavaskar termed Buchanan a "failed former cricketer making a living telling international players to do what he couldn't do". It has not gone down well with the IPL franchise, which last week tried to put a lid on the controversy generated by Buchanan's theory of multiple captains by releasing a statement that during a game the team would resort to a cluster of "strategists" who would report to one on-field captain while making decisions.

Khan has come to Buchanan's protection, saying there was a manifest difference in the time Gavaskar played and now. "I have admiration Mr. Gavaskar - his acquaintance about cricket is a billion times better than me," Khan told reporters in Mumbai. "But this is an era where Mr. Gavaskar has not indulged in; nevertheless his knowledge about the game does allow him to make comments.

Gavaskar also said the Indian media arranged unnecessary importance to Buchanan. "In India, where the media lives by the sound bite, Buchanan is a customary," he wrote. "If the Indian media had not made him out to be a 'super coach', he would have been just another disastrous former cricketer making a living telling international players to do what he couldn't at the first-class level."