KKR
The Kolkata Knight Riders (also known by the acronym KKR) are a franchise cricket team representing the city of Kolkata in the Indian Premier League. The franchise is owned by Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan, actress Juhi Chawla and her spouse Jay Mehta. The team is coached by Jacques Kallis. The home of the Knight Riders is Eden Gardens, the largest cricket stadium in India and the second largest in the world by seating capacity.[2]
Although the team has gained immense popularity due to its association with celebrity owners, it was surrounded with controversy and poor on-field performance through the first three years of the tournament.[3] The team's performance, however, improved from the fourth season as it qualified for the IPL playoffs as well as the now defunctChampions League Twenty20. They eventually became the IPL champions for the first time in 2012, by defeating Chennai Super Kings in the final and repeated the feat in2014, defeating Kings XI Punjab.[4] The Knight Riders hold the record for the longest winning streak by any Indian team in T20s (14).[5]
The leading run-scorer of the side is Gautam Gambhir,[6] while the leading wicket-taker isSunil Narine.[7] The official theme of the team is Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo Re (we will perform, fight and win!) and the official colours are purple and gold. The brand value of the Knight Riders was estimated at $99 million in 2017, second highest among IPL franchises.[3]
Franchise history
Sourav Ganguly with the symbol of the Kolkata Knight Riders, flanked byShahrukh Khan on the left and Gauri Khan on the right.
In 2007, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) created the cricket tournamentIndian Premier League based on theTwenty20 form of the game.[8] Eight teams would participate in the inaugural tournament held in April – June of the same year. The teams representing the eight different cities of India were put up on auction in Mumbai on 20 February. The team representing Kolkatawas eventually bought by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's company Red Chillies Entertainment in partnership with actress Juhi Chawla and her husband Jay Mehta for a price of $75.09 million, equal to approximately ₹2.98 billion at that time.[9]Sourav Ganguly, former captain of the Indian national team and a native of West Bengal, was named the Icon Player for the team. The name of the team is a reference to the popular 1980s American television seriesKnight Rider.[10]
In June 2015, they bought a stake in theCaribbean Premier League cricket team Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel[11] and later in 2016, renamed it Trinbago Knight Riders.[12] In July 2017, they bought Cape Town Knight Riders in the newly formed T20 Global League.[13]
Livery
Initially, when Kolkata Knight Riders were first introduced in 2008, the logo of the team consisted of a blazing golden Viking helmetagainst a black background with the name of the team written in gold next to it. However, the black background was changed to purple in the third season. It was in 2012 that the current logo, which has a blazig purpleCorinthian helmet trimmed with gold, with Kolkata Knight Riders written within a shield was introduced.[14]
The tagline of the team was "All the King's Men" during the first four seasons.[15]However, in the fifth it was replaced by "New Dawn, New Knights". The team's official colours were black and gold during the first two seasons. At the time, Khan said that "golden symbolizes spirit of life and black presents the Goddess Kali."[15] It was later changed to purple and gold during the third season and was kept so. The jersey was created by Bollywood fashion designerManish Malhotra.[15]
The main theme of the team Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo Re (we will act, fight and win!) was scored by Vishal-Shekhar duo.[15] A Knight Riders album featuring several singers and music composers including Usha Uthup andBappi Lahiri was also created.[16][17]
Home ground
The home venue of the Knight Riders is the iconic Eden Gardens (with the two ends of the crease called the High Court End and the Club House End). Owned by the Cricket Association of Bengal, it is the largest cricket stadium in India and had a seating capacity of over 90,000.[18] In 2011, the stadium was renovated to meet the standards set by theICC for the 2011 Cricket World Cup; reducing its capacity to around 68,000. The renovated stadium includes a new clubhouse and players' facilities, upgrading the exterior wall, cladding the existing roof structure with a new metal skin, and general infrastructure improvements.[19] In 2013, two of the team's home matches were hosted by the JSCA International Cricket Stadium in Ranchi.
Sponsors and partners
Multinational communications corporationNokia was the official founding sponsor of the Kolkata Knight Riders and remained their principal sponsor until 2014.[20][21][3] In 2015, Chinese mobile phone manufacturer Gioneetook over as their principal sponsor and signed a three-year deal worth ₹540 million(US$8.3 million).[22] In 2018, Nokia returned as the main sponsor of the Knight Riders, signing a two-year deal.[23] Star Plus, Reebok, HDIL, Kit Kat, Sprite, SB Nation, Doublemint, SAP AG,Red FM 93.5, Seiko, U.S. Polo Assn., Uber,Dish TV, Sansui, Ola Cabs, Pepsi and Sony Music India have all formerly been either their co-sponsors or partners.
As of 2018, they have co-sponsorship deals with Jio, Lux Cozi, SRMB Steel, Exide, Royal Stag, JBL, The Telegraph, Fever 104 FM,Greenply and Kingfisher Premium along with several others.[24]
Players
Sourav Ganguly, the former captain of the Indian cricket team was the icon player and led the franchise in the 2008 and 2010 seasons. Brendon McCullum lead the team in the intervening period. Both captains were released before the 2011 season. The former team included all-rounders Chris Gayle, David Hussey, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Angelo Mathews, batsman Ricky Ponting and wicket keeper Wriddhiman Saha. The main bowlers were Umar Gul, Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda,Ajit Agarkar and Murali Karthik. Australian batsman Brad Hodge and bowlers Ajantha Mendis and Charl Langeveldt were bought outside the IPL auction in late 2008.
At the 2009 auction the team bought Bangladeshi all-rounder Mashrafe Mortaza. Due to the unavailability of Pakistani players starting 2009, KKR had to suspend the contract of Umar Gul, who was a key performer from the 2008 season.[25][26] On 26 April 2009, KKR administration sent back two of its players Akash Chopra and Sanjay Bangar on the premises of poor performance.[27] Shane Bond was acquired after releasing Ricky Ponting, Morne van Wykand the Pakistani players Umar Gul, Salman Butt, Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Akhtarbefore the third season. Moises Henriqueswas traded to Delhi in return for Owais Shahand Manoj Tiwary. Thus, their overseas roster for the 2010 season consisted of Shane Bond, Mashrafe Mortaza, Brendon McCullum, Charl Langeveldt, Ajantha Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Brad Hodge, David Hussey, Owais Shah and Chris Gayle.
In the 2011 season, KKR drastically revamped their squad. Former captain and icon player Sourav Ganguly was not purchased in the January auction. This led to protest rallies, signature campaigns throughout the country and abroad along with stadium protests by various fan groups, such as No Dada No KKR,[28] which received both national and international press attention.[29][30][31] The team appointed Gautam Gambhir, who was bought for a record-breaking $2.4 million as skipper.[32] Yusuf Pathan was also picked up for a whopping $2.1 million.[32] Other international names who were added includeShakib Al Hasan, Brad Haddin, Jacques Kallis,Brett Lee, Ryan ten Doeschate, Eoin Morganand James Pattinson. Haddin was replaced by Mark Boucher mid-season due to injury.[32]
In the 2012 auction, KKR bought back their former captain, Brendon McCullum. They also acquired West Indian spinner Sunil Narine and South African fast bowler Marchant de Lange.
The team later added four domestic players to their squad, including Debabrata Das andIresh Saxena from Bengal, Saurashtra'sChirag Jani and Sanju Samson from Kerala.[33] However, in November 2012, KKR released the latter three from their team along with Jaydev Unadkat, a key performer from the previous seasons. In the 2013 auction, the team acquired only two overseas players,Sachithra Senanayake and Ryan McLaren.
Before the February 2014 auction, the team had only retained their key performers Gautam Gambhir and Sunil Narine. From the auctions that took place, the team brought back Jacques Kallis and Yusuf Pathan with their right-to-match (RTM) card. Also keeping their place in the squad was Ryan ten Doeschate and Shakib Al Hasan. New international players were Morne Morkel,Patrick Cummins and Chris Lynn. Prominent Indian players bought included Robin Uthappa, Umesh Yadav, Manish Pandey,Suryakumar Yadav and Piyush Chawla.
KKR's impressive additions in the 2015 auction were veteran Australian bowler Brad Hogg and wicket-keeper Sheldon Jackson. Before the auction in February 2016, they released Ryan ten Doeschate who was a part of their team for five consecutive seasons along with pace bowler Pat Cummins. The Knight Riders were particularly noted for their change in approach from the previous auctions where they had concentrated on spinners. For the 2016 edition, however, they acquired as many as six pacers in the form of all-rounders John Hastings, Colin Munro,Jason Holder and Rajagopal Sathish as well as bowlers Ankit Rajpoot and Jaydev Unadkat, with the latter being a former player of the squad. They signed one spinner in Manan Sharma.[34] Before the 2017 auctions, they released Morne Morkel, Brad Hogg, Jason Holder, Colin Munro, John Hastings, Jaydev Unadkat, Rajagopal Sathish, Manan Sharma and replacement signing Shaun Tait. From the2017 Indian Premier League auction, they signed Trent Boult, English all-rounder Chris Woakes, Australian Nathan Coulter-Nile, West Indian Darren Bravo and Jamaican Rovman Powell. The domestic players signed wereRishi Dhawan, Ishank Jaggi, Sayan Ghosh andR Sanjay Yadav. At the time, Andre Russellwas banned for one year for doping; he was replaced by Colin de Grandhomme for the season. In January 2018, they only retained West Indian cricketers Sunil Narine and Andre Russell. Their two-time title winning captain Gautam Gambhir was released. At the auction, they retained Robin Uthappa, Piyush Chawla and Kuldeep Yadav using RTM (Right-To-Match) card. KKR also bought back their impressive opener Chris Lynn and uncapped Indian batsman Ishank Jaggi. Other uncapped batsmen bought were Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Cameron Delport, Rinku Singh and Apoorv Wankhade. They also bought West Indian uncapped all-rounder Javon Searles and uncapped Indian all-rounders Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Shivam Mavi. Other signings were veteran Indian wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik, Australian pace bowlers Mitchell Starc and Mitchell Johnson and former Knight Riders player Vinay Kumar.
On 4 March 2018, Dinesh Karthik was appointed as the captain of KKR for IPL 2018and Robin Uthappa was named as vice-captain.[35] Mitchell Starc was ruled out from the season due to tibial bone stress in right leg. Following Starc's injury, Tom Curran was announced as replacement.
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