Kolkata Knight Riders: Difference between revisions

Kolkata Knight Riders
Personnel
Captain	Gautam Gambhir
Coach	Trevor Bayliss
Owner	Shahrukh Khan
Team information
City	Kolkata, West Bengal
Colors
Founded	2008
Home ground	Eden Gardens ; (Capacity: 90,000)
History
IPL wins	1 (2012)
CLT20 wins	0 (Qualified 2011)
Official website	KKR.IN

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Revision as of 10:59, 28 May 2012

Kolkata Knight Riders ( Bengali : কোলকাতা নাইট রাইডার্স )(often abbreviated as KKR) is a franchise representing Kolkata in the Indian Premier League. The team is currently captained by Gautam Gambhir and coached by Trevor Bayliss, a former Australian cricketer. The bowling legend, Wasim Akram is the team's bowling consultant and mentor. Sourav Ganguly, who was the team's Icon Player for the first three seasons, captained the side in the first and third seasons of the tournament while Brendon McCullum led the team in the intervening period. The team won it's first title in 2012 by defeating defending champions and two time winners Chennai Super Kings comprehensively by 5 wickets at their home ground in Chennai.^[2]

The official theme of the team is Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo Re (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 are ranked as the second most valuable franchise brand at US$46 million.^[3] Celebrity Shahrukh Khan’s hard-selling of the KKR brand counteracted the team’s poor on-field performance through the first three seasons.^[4] The team's performance, however, improved from the fourth season as it qualified for the IPL playoffs, made it to the Champions League Twenty20 and won the IPL for the first time in 2012.^[2]

The home of the Kolkata Knight Riders is Eden Gardens, the largest cricket stadium in India. It is also one of the largest stadiums in Asia, together with Salt Lake Stadium and May Day Stadium.^[5]

Franchise history

In 2008, The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) created the cricket tournament Indian Premier League based on the Twenty20 form of the game.^[6] 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 Kolkata was 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 (₹ 357 crores).^[7] The group have since named the team Kolkata Knight Riders.

2008 IPL season

The Kolkata Knight Riders made a good start 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 most runs ever scored by a batsman in a Twenty-20 match.^[8] However, the team began to experience failures and lost the next four matches. The team managed to stage a comeback of sorts by winning the next three matches, helped by strong performances by Sourav Ganguly and Shoaib Akhtar. But their performance dipped again and they lost the next three matches. These included their match against Mumbai Indians, in which they were bowled out for 67 runs, the lowest score by a team in the IPL 2008 season.^[9] When their match against Delhi Daredevils was washed out due to rain, they lost any chance of making it to the semi finals.^[10] The Knight Riders ended their season on a winning note by defeating Kings XI Punjab on their home ground.

The team faced various issues in its first season 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.^[11] Shahrukh Khan was barred by the International Cricket Council from entering the dressing room of the team when matches were in progress. He then issued a statement that he would be boycotting the remaining matches of the IPL until the code of conduct was clarified by the IPL authorities.^[12]

Financially, the Kolkata Knight Riders were easily the most successful franchise in the IPL, achieving a profit of ₹13 crore (US$1.6 million).^[13]

2009 IPL season

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. Ganguly was removed from the captaincy in the 11th hour and replaced by Brendon McCullum based on a series of theories discussing "multiple-captains". Soon, a blog by an anonymous author surfaced on the web. The blogger claimed to be a member of the team. The posts described what the blogger claimed were team meetings, arguments between staff and team members, post-match parties and pre-match strategy.^[14] It created a lot of media frenzy, but was eventually found to be a fake.^[15]

KKR also set up a Talent Resource Development Wing (TRDW) in 2009 to spot local talent nationwide. This was based on BCCI's 2002–06 model which had discovered talents like MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina. The wing was headed by Makarand Wainganker, who had first initiated the TRDW concept for the KSCA.^[16] However, Wainganker eventually resigned after persistent disagreements with John Buchanan over team selection and Buchanan's "multiple captains" theory.^[17] KKR 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 the best used

At the end of IPL season 2, Kolkata Knight Riders was amongst the most profitable franchisees along side Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils.

2010 IPL season

The Kolkata Knight Riders traded Australian all-rounder Moises Henriques for Manoj Tiwary and Owais Shah. At the Player auctions they managed to successfully buy Shane Bond in the silent tie-breaker against competing bids from Deccan Chargers.

The Kolkata Knight Riders had a fantastic start to the season by beating Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers Bangalore. That was followed by three consecutive defeats at the hands of Chennai Super Kings, Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians. The Knight Riders then had a roller-coaster ride in the tournament. After 11 games, they were required to win all their three remaining games to qualify for the semi-finals. A defeat at the MAC Stadium at the hands of Chennai Super Kings put paid to their chances. However, the Knight Riders made a decent comeback by beating the Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians in their last two games.

2011 IPL season

In this edition of the IPL, the Kolkata Knight Riders decided to revamp the team, starting with a new look and by changing the entire set of players. Sourav Ganguly, the team's Icon player and the previous year's captain was dropped in the IPL auction held earlier that year. Gautam Gambhir, who was bought for a record-breaking $2.4 million was appointed as skipper. KKR also managed to buy Yusuf Pathan for $ 2.1 million. Other international names were added to the squad, including Shakib Al Hasan, Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee and Ryan ten Doeschate.^[18] Brad Haddin was replaced by Mark Boucher in mid-season due to a finger injury he sustained during practice.^[19]

The Kolkata Knight Riders had a disappointing start of season, losing to Chennai Super Kings by 2 runs. But they came back stronger, winning their next three matches against Deccan Chargers and Rajasthan Royals at Kolkata and Jaipur respectively. After two consecutive defeats in their home ground, the team had a string of wins against Delhi Daredevils, Kings XI Punjab and Deccan Chargers. They went on to win two of the remaining four matches; one against Chennai super kings in Kolkata and the other against Pune Warriors India in Navi Mumbai which enabled them to qualify for the playoffs for the first time.^[20] In the eliminator they lost to Mumbai Indians owing to the last over which conceded 21 runs, losing their chance to enter the semi-finals for the first time.^[20]

In the 2011 edition of the IPL, Sourav Ganguly was not picked by the owners and team officials. This created a huge uproar in Kolkata. The angry fans created a protest group called No Dada No KKR.^[21] This was followed by a silent protest rally, signature campaigns throughout the country and abroad and stadium protests.^[21] But the uproar came to an halt and the fans' reactions gradually improved as the team's performance began to improve and the Eden Gardens stadium began to witness a huge capacity.^[22]^[23] KKR finished amongst the top of teams after the completion of the mid season game-play.^[20]

2012 IPL season

Due to the disbanding of Kochi Tuskers Kerala, each team will play the remaining eight teams twice, once at home and once away. Therefore each team will play 16 matches. KKR bought back Brendon McCullum for $900,000 and West Indies Sunil Narine for $700,000. They also bought South-African Marchant de Lange for $50,000. The team replaced coach Dav Whatmore by Trevor Bayliss. Kolkata Knight Riders also launched a new marketing campaign titled “New Dawn. New Knights” and a new logo.^[24]

The 2012 IPL was the most successful season for the franchise, winning the IPL trophy for the first time in IPL history.^[25] KKR got off to a poor start in the tournament, losing their first two games against Delhi Daredevils and Rajasthan Royals. However, they fought back with consecutive wins over Royal Challengers Bangalore and Rajasthan Royals. In the next match, however, they messed up an easy chase against Kings XI Punjab, losing narrowly by 2 runs. KKR's West Indian spinner Sunil Narine took the only five-wicket haul of the tournament (5-19) in that match. KKR then went on to win nine matches in a row (except for a washed-out match against Deccan Chargers), in contrast to nine successive defeats in the 2009 IPL. However, the team's performances dipped in the following two matches, losing against Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings. However the team had a timely return to form, when they beat Mumbai Indians and Pune Warriors India in successive away matches, with their bowlers bowling economically to defend average totals. This earned a second place finish for the team at the end of the league stage and a semi-final match against Delhi Daredevils. An all-round performance from them saw Delhi being defeated by 18 runs, and KKR also qualifying for their maiden IPL final. They won the tournament eventually, beating Chennai Super Kings by five wickets.

There were some eye-catching performers for KKR in IPL 5, particularly on the bowling front. The West Indian superstar Sunil Narine was the second-highest wicket-taker as well as player of the tournament, and also had the best economy rate in the tournament. Lakshmipathy Balaji had the second best economy rate. Shakib Al Hasan, Iqbal Abdulla, Yusuf Pathan, Brett Lee, and Jacques Kallis also starred with the ball. The batting was led by skipper Gautam Gambhir, who was the second-highest run-getter of the tournament and scored 6 half-centuries out of a total of nine from his team. Kallis, Brendon McCullum, and Manoj Tiwary all contributed a half-century, while Debabrata Das played an excellent finishing role for them. Yusuf Pathan, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, and Shakib, although not in the best of forms in the tournament, peaked at the right time, towards or during the playoffs. Manvinder Bisla was their star performer in the final, playing a match winning knock.Kolkata Knight Riders won the IPL final against Chennai Super Kings in a nail biting match at Chennai on 27 May 2012. ^[26]

Poonam Pandey had promised she will strip if superstar Shah Rukh Khan's franchise Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) won the fifth edition of Indian Premier League (IPL). And the controversial model kept her word.^[27]

Livery

File:Kkr shirt from my mobile.jpg

KKR's jersey in season 3

Initially, when Kolkata knight Riders were first introduced in 2008, the logo of the team consisted of a blazing golden Viking helmet against a black background with the name of the team Kolkata Knight Riders written in gold next to it. However, the black background was changed to purple in the third season. In 2012, a new logo, which consist of a blazing purple Corinthian helmet trimmed with gold, with Kolkata Knight Rider written within a shield has been introduced.^[28] The name Knight Riders has been chosen keeping in view the kids and the youth. The name was chosen over the Kolkata Love Boats and the Kolkata Fantasy Islands.^[29] The team's mascot, a Royal Bengal Tiger, has been named Hoog Lee.^[29]

The tag line of the team was "All the King's Men" during the first four season.^[29] 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. Khan explained that "golden symbolizes spirit of life and black presents the Goddess Kali. "^[29] It was later changed to purple and gold during the third season and was kept so. The jersey was created by Bollywood fashion designer Manish Malhotra.^[29]

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.^[29] A Knight Rider album with several singers and music composers including Usha Uthup and Bappi Lahiri was also created.^[30] In 2009, A music video for one of the songs from the album, called "Too Hot, Too cool" directed by Farah Khan and featuring Khan and some of the members of the team was filmed in helipad area in Film City, Mumbai. The theme of the video centred around the African wild life as the IPL 2's venue had been shifted to South Africa at the time.^[31]

Home Ground

Kolkata Knight Riders home venue is the iconic Eden Gardens (also called High Court End and Pavilion End). Owned by the Cricket Association of Bengal, it is the largest cricket stadium in India by seating capacity of 70,000.^[1]

In 2011, the stadium was renovated to meet the standards set by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for the 2011 World Cup. 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.^[32]

Administration

Owners – Shahrukh Khan (Red Chillies Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.) in partnership with Juhi Chawla, Jai Mehta.
CEO & Managing Director – Venky Mysore^[33]
Coach – Trevor Bayliss^[34]
Assistant Coach – Vijay Dahiya
Bowling Consultant – Wasim Akram
Physiotherapist- Andrew Leipus
Physical Trainer – Adrian Le Roux
Team Analyst – A. R. Srikkanth

Sponsors and Partners

Finnish multinational communications corporation – Nokia is the official founding sponsor of the Kolkata Knight Riders, while Reebok is their official apparel sponsor.^[35]^[36] Other principal sponsors include kit kat, Royal Stag, Dish TV, Linc Pen.^[37] Associate sponsors and official partners include Coca Cola, Gitanjali Group, Rose Valley, The Telegraph (Kolkata), SB Nation, Doublemint and Amity University.^[37] Other sponsors include Matrix, Manyavar, Spanco, Concast Maxx and EMTA. And some other partners for the KKR are Xenoh deodorant, Vivel, Freecultr, Bisk Farm, Birla Sun Life Insurance and Chirag Computers.

Players

Sourav Ganguly, the former captain of the Indian cricket team was the icon player and led the Kolkata franchise in the inaugural season 2008 and 2010. He was unceremoniously dumped when KKR released all the players and did not rebid for Sourav during the January 2011 auctions. The earlier team also included 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.

At the 2009 auction the team bought Bangladeshi all-rounder Mashrafe Mortaza. It also includes Charl Langeveldt who was signed outside of the auction. Due to unavailability of Pakistani players in 2009, KKR had to suspend contract of key performer from the 2008 season Umar Gul.^[38]^[39] On 26 April 2009, KKR administration sent back two of its players Akash Chopra and Sanjay Bangar on the premises of poor performance.^[40] Shane Bond was the latest KKR acquisition after releasing Ricky Ponting, Morne van Wyk, Umar Gul, Salman Butt, Mohammad 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 were – 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 Saurav Ganguly was not purchased in the January auction. The team appointed Gautam Gambhir, who was bought for a record-breaking $2.4 million as skipper.^[18] Yusuf Pathan was also picked up for a whopping $ 2.1 million.^[18] Other international names were added to the squad, include Shakib Al Hasan, Brad Haddin, Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee, Ryan ten Doeschate, Eoin Morgan, James Pattinson. Haddin was replaced by Mark Boucher mid-season due to injury.^[18]

In the 2012 auction, KKR bought back their former batsman, 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 and Iresh Saxena from Bengal, Saurashtra's Chirag Jani and Sanju Samson from Kerala.^[41]

Current Squad

Template:Kolkata Knight Riders Roster

Player salaries

Player	Year Contract Signed / Renewed	Salary
Gautam Gambhir	2011	$2,400,000
Yusuf Pathan	2011	$2,100,000
Jacques Kallis	2011	$1,100,000
Brendon McCullum	2012	$900,000
Sunil Narine	2012	$700,000
Lakshmipathy Balaji	2011	$500,000
Manoj Tiwary	2011	$475,000
Shakib Al Hasan	2011	$425,000
Brett Lee	2011	$400,000
Eoin Morgan	2011	$350,000
Brad Haddin	2011	$325,000
Jaydev Unadkat	2011	$250,000
Ryan ten Doeschate	2011	$150,000
James Pattinson	2011	$100,000
Marchant de Lange	2012	$50,000

Champions League Twenty20

2011 CLT20 season

KKR's top four finish meant they would now participate in the qualifying league for the 2011 Champions League Twenty20, held from 19 to 21 September. They were drawn along with Somerset and Auckland Aces in Pool B. Both of their matches were initially to be played at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, but was later moved to the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad.

KKR recorded a 2-run victory in their first match against Auckland Aces, thanks to brilliant spells from Iqbal Abdulla and Yusuf Pathan. Their next match against Somerset Sabres ended in a 11-run defeat. However, both teams qualified for the main tournament by finishing on a better NRR+ than Sri Lankan franchise Ruhuna Rhinos of Pool A.

KKR was placed with Somerset, Southern Redbacks, Warriors and fellow IPL team Royal Challengers Bangalore in Group B.

The team lost their first two matches against Somerset Sabres and Southern Redbacks. They made an impressive comeback by winning the last two games, first by 9 wickets against Royal Challengers Bangalore and a rain affected 22 run victory by (D/L) against Warriors. However, despite being tied on points, they could not make the semi-final due to a lesser NRR+ than the Royal Challengers. They ended up fifth on the overall points table.

Captain Gautam Gambhir wasn't able to lead the team during the qualifying stage, as he has been recovering from an injury he sustained during a Test match between India and England at The Oval. Jacques Kallis was the appointed captain in Gambhir's absence. However, Gambhir returned to lead the team in the Group stage. KKR was also without the services of Eoin Morgan, who was due to have a shoulder surgery, and Mark Boucher who was playing for Warriors.

Fixtures and results

Overall results

Summary of results
	Played	Wins	Losses	Tied	Win %	Position
IPL
2008	13	6	7	0	45%	6/8
2009	13	3	9	1	21%	8/8
2010	14	7	7	0	50%	6/8
2011	15	8	7	0	53.33%	4/10
2012	17	12	5	0	70.59%	1/9
Total	72	36	35	1	50.0%
Champions League T20
2011	6	3	3	0	50%	5/10 (13)
Total	6	3	3	0	50%
Overall
Overall	78	39	38	1	50.0%