Kolkata Knight Riders

Kolkata Knight Riders is the franchise representing Kolkata in the Indian Premier League, a Twenty20 cricket tournament. The team is led by Sourav Ganguly, and coached by Dav Whatmore. Sourav Ganguly is the team's Icon Player. The official theme of the team is Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo Re (Bengali for We will do it, Fight for it, Win it) and the official colors are purple and gold. As per the recent study done by a UK based brand valuation company, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are ranked as the second most valuable franchise brand at US$46 million.Celebrity co-owner Shahrukh Khan’s hard-selling of the KKR brand has counteracted the team’s poor on-field performance. They are the only team to have never made the semi-finals.

Franchise History

Kolkata Knight Riders is one the 8 franchise teams taking part in the Indian Premier League. It was bought by Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan's Red Chillies Entertainment in partnership with Juhi Chawla Mehta and her husband Jay Mehta.

2008 IPL Season

Performance

The Kolkata Knight Riders had a good beginning to the season by winning their first two matches against Royal Challengers Bangalore and Deccan Chargers.Kolkata Knight Riders' opening batsman Brendon McCullum scored 158 runs in the first match, which is a record for the highest runs ever scored by a batsman in a Twenty-20 match.However, the team started experiencing failures and lost consecutive four matches. The team managed to stage a comeback of sorts by winning next three matches based on strong performances by Sourav Ganguly and Shoaib Akhtar. But their performance dipped again and lost next three matches, which included their match against Mumbai Indians, in which they were bowled out for 67 runs, the lowest score by a team in IPL 2008 season.When their match against Delhi Daredevils was washed out due to rain, they lost any chance of making it to the semifinals.The Knight Riders ended their season on a winning note by defeating Kings XI Punjab on their home ground.

Controversy

There were reports of a rift between Shahrukh Khan and Sourav Ganguly over various issues such as team composition, Ganguly's choice of batting first in the game against Chennai Super Kings, entertainment tax being imposed for matches played at Eden Gardens (Shahrukh reportedly wanted Ganguly to speak to the West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya about it, which was refused by Ganguly).It was also reported that Shahrukh Khan bestowed more powers to John Buchanan including giving him full powers to select the team for the following year which was not liked by Ganguly.However, the team management issued a statement that the reports of a possible rift are untrue.

Shahrukh Khan was further barred by the International Cricket Council Anti-Corruption Unit from entering the dressing room of the team when matches were in progress. Shahrukh Khan then issued a statement that he would be boycotting the remaining matches of the IPL till the code of conduct was clarified by the IPL authorities.

Financial

Financially, the Kolkata Knight Riders were easily the most successful franchise in the IPL, achieving a profit of Rs. 13 crore.

2009 IPL Season

Players

Kolkata Knight Riders was among the least active franchises during the offseason, with no player trades. However, the team signed Mohnish Parmar during the offseason and also re-signed Ajantha Mendis to a long term deal. The most notable personnel move for Knight Riders came during the 2009 IPL Auction, where the team signed Bangladesh fast bowler Mashrafe Mortaza.

Controversy

The rift between Sourav Ganguly and Shahrukh Khan took a new turn as Ganguly was removed from the captaincy in the 11th hour and replaced by Brendon McCullum. Rumours are that John Buchanan wanted Ganguly out. First, he floated a series of theories discussing "multiple-captains" before Ganguly was removed. Soon thereafter, a blog popped up on the web whose author is an anonymous blogger, who claims to be a member of the team and seems determined to reveal every team secret, warts and all. The posts describe what the blogger claims are team meetings, arguments between staff and team members, post-match parties and pre-match strategy.

Cheer Leaders

They were the first team in IPL to select their cheer leaders by a talent hunt show called Knights and Angels, judged by Sourav Ganguly and Guest Star and hosted by Bollywood actor Purab Kohli. However, the winning team did not get a chance to perform at games during the 2009 season since local authorities only allowed South African cheerleaders to be used.

Livery

The logo of the team consists of a blazing golden Viking helmet against a black background with the name of the team Kolkata Knight Riders written in gold. The main theme of the team Korbo, Lorbo, Jitbo Re (We will do it, Fight for it, Win it) has been created by Vishal-Shekhar duo.A Knight Rider album with several singers and music composers including Usha Uthup and Bappi Lahiri will also be created.The tag line of the team is All the King's Men.The team's official colours are purple and gold. The jersey was created by Bollywood fashion designer Manish Malhotra.The team also has a mascot named Hoog Lee, who is a lazy Royal Bengal Tiger and loves to eat burgers. The name is a pun on the river Hooghly. The name Knight Riders has been chosen keeping in view the kids and the youth.

Players

Sourav Ganguly, the former captain of the Indian cricket team is the icon player and led the Kolkata franchise. The team also includes all rounders Chris Gayle, David Hussey, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Angelo Mathews, wicket keeper batsmen Brendon McCullum, Wriddhiman Saha. The main bowlers are Shane Bond, Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda, Ajit Agarkar and Murali Karthik. Australian batsman Bradley Hodge and Sri Lankan bowler Ajantha Mendis were bought outside IPL Auction on 2008. On IPL Auction 2009 Team bought Bangladeshi All-Rounder Mashrafe Mortaza. Team also includes Charl Langeveldt who was signed outside of Auction. Due to unavailability of Pakistani players in 2009 KKR had to suspend contract of key performer from the 2008 season Umar Gul.

On 26 April 2009, KKR administration sent back two of its players Akash Chopra and Sanjay Bangar on the premises of poor performance. But there was high media speculation that one or both of them have been caught or strongly suspected of being the "Fake IPL Player" responsible for the blog which had been creating ripples with inside information on KKR team. Shane Bond is the latest KKR acquisition after releasing Ricky Ponting, Morne van Wyk, Umar Gul, Salman Butt, Mohammed Hafeez, Shoaib Akhtar for IPL III. Moises Henriques was traded to Delhi in return for Owais Shah and Manoj Tiwary. Their international players for the 2010 season are - Shane Bond, Mashrafe Mortaza, Brendon McCullum, Charl Langeveldt, Ajantha Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Brad Hodge, David Hussey, Owais Shah & Chris Gayle.