Even as the incident-ridden Kolkata Knight Riders succumbed to their eighth straight defeat in the IPL on Tuesday, news of a foreigners vs Indians divide in the team has plunged them into another controversy. According to sources, two of KKR’s support staff have spoken to Indian players rudely on more than one occasion, and former India seamer Ajit Agarkar has had a running rift with them over the issue that has split the squad into two camps.

This issue was raised by former India cricketer Ajay Jadeja, who told NDTV on Monday that one of the Kolkata support staff had said to an Indian player,”You Indian, you do as you’re told.” Jadeja said the alleged incident happened about 15 days ago and Shah Rukh Khan had intervened to resolve it.

Kolkata’s Director of Cricket Operations John Buchanan declined to comment on the allegation, saying it was “too inane a comment to comment on” and denied that there was a divide in the team. “All these speculations about the team divided are rubbish and I call these speculations ridiculous,” he said.

But a team source said several players in the squad were reportedly unhappy that Buchanan has time and again blamed the Indian bowlers for the team’s defeats, while sparing the the foreign recruits who had failed to fire with the bat until Tuesday’s game. “In every match we have to bowl with a limited target, yet we take the match close. Why are we always blamed? John is yet to have any strong words to his own set of players,” a team member told The Indian Express.

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