In stark contrast to the silence that accompanied the listless defence against Kings XI Punjab, the Eden Gardens faithful responded passionately to a charged performance from Kolkata Knight Riders, which derailed Delhi Daredevils’ chase to secure an invaluable 14-run victory. At the heart of the turnaround was Sourav Ganguly, who scored a half-century to build a challenging total, after which he fielded like few believed he could: the direct hit that ran out Gautam Gambhir ended a threatening 99-run partnership and turned the game Kolkata’s way.

The result took them level on 10 points with Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore, the fourth-placed team.

It nearly didn’t happen for Kolkata though. Virender Sehwag, who was reprieved on 7 when the umpire failed to hear or see an edge, threatened to deliver Delhi their seventh win. His partnership with Gambhir put Delhi on course and he completed a 34-ball half-century, his slowest in the IPL. It was greeted with silence by Eden Gardens. Delhi needed 48 off 32 balls with seven wickets in hand when Ajit Agarkar’s inswinger crashed into Sehwag’s stumps, and the slide had begun.

Ajantha Mendis, chosen ahead of Shane Bond because of a dry pitch, had Kedar Jadhav caught at cover – Ganguly jumping to intercept a hard drive – in the 17th over. The next, from left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla, was pivotal. He bowled Farveez Maharoof with one that pitched middle and hit off, before reacting athletically to run out Rajat Bhatia three balls later.

The decisive blow was struck by Ashok Dinda in the penultimate over when Dinesh Karthik, Kolkata’s last threat, pulled to Brendon McCullum at midwicket. His exit left Delhi needing 30 off 10 balls, a task too hard for Daniel Vettori and Amit Mishra. It was fitting that Dinda landed the last blow, for he had struck the first during an astonishing opening over. He hurried David Warner with four skiddy deliveries, cramping him for room, before beating him with the fifth – a quick one that uprooted offstump before Warner had brought his bat down. Delhi knew then that they were in for a scrap.

Unlike Ganguly, who used the pace of Dinda, Agarkar and Angelo Mathews, Gambhir instructed his bowlers – from Maharoof to Rajat Bhatia – to take the pace of the ball. It didn’t work immediately for Kolkata made their best score at the end of ten overs this season – 88 – and had all wickets intact.

Chris Gayle, who had scored 40 off 21, fell soon after though, missing a swipe against Bhatia, and Ganguly followed in similar fashion against Vettori. Brendon McCullum was run out cheaply too and Kolkata scored only 30 runs between overs 12 and 16 to reach 130 for 3.

The innings needed acceleration and it was provided by Mathews and Tiwary. Mathews had been dropped Bhatia on 10 – a caught and bowled opportunity – and he made Delhi pay with two well-aimed blows over long-on. Tiwary joined in the hitting right at the end, and they boosted the innings by taking 18 runs off Mishra’s last over. Their partnership was worth 70 in 6.5 overs, and it helped set Delhi a testing target in a match vital to Kolkata’s semi-final chances.

George Binoy is a senior sub-editor at Cricinfo

Kolkata Knight Riders 102 for 6 (Shukla 48*, Munaf 2-15) beat Rajasthan Royals 101 for 9 (Langeveldt 3-15, Agarkar 2-15) by four wickets. LR shukla helped Kolkata Knight Riders register a victory over Rajasthan Royals by four wickets…

Sourav Ganguly and Brendon McCullum depart early, chasing a modest target of 102 runs against Rajasthan Royals.

Munaf Patel claims his second victim in the form of Yashpal Singh to push Kolkata Knight Riders on to the backfoot.

Kolkata then kept on losing wickets at the regular intervals and were struggling at one stage with six wickets down less than 50 runs on the board.

But Laxmi Ratan Shukla (48 not out) came to his team’s rescue and ultimately helped his team get the better of the defending champions by four wickets.

Earlier, paceman Charl Langeveldt snapped up three prized scalps in his first match as Kolkata Knight Riders restricted defending champions Rajasthan Royals to 101 for nine in a crucial Indian Premier League match on Wednesday.

Put into bat, the Royals batting completely came unstuck in the face of a disciplined bowling display by the Kolkata team on a good track at the Kingsmead.

Langaveldt returned with figures of 4-0-15-3 to rattle the Royals who desperately need to win the match to stay afloat in the high-profile tournament.

Kolkata, who are at the bottom of the points table, now need to score at just over five runs an over to pull off their second consecutive victory and end the tournament on a winning note.

The contest got off to a dramatic start with Rajasthan Royals clobbering Brad Hodge for as many as 22 runs in the very first over with the diminutive opener Naman Ojha belting three sixes to set the tempo for his team.

But the script changed very swiftly for the defending champions as South African paceman Charl Langeveldt, playing his first match in the tournament, struck in his very first ball by scalping opener Rob Quiney (1).

Quiney tried to pull the ball and only managed to top edge it to wicket keeper Shoaib Shaikh who latched on to a simple catch.

After the flourishing opening over, Rajasthan Royals suddenly found themselves in the pit as they lost Ojha (22), Swapnil Asnodkar and Johan Botha (8) in quick succession to be left tottering at 42 for four by the end of the fifth over. While Ojha was done in by a short pitched delivery by Langeveldt, Asnodkar was needlessly run out trying to go for a non-existent run.

Botha was promoted in the batting order to steady the rocking ship but he also could not survive long, being cleaned up by Ajit Agarkar in his very first ball.

With wickets tumbling at regular intervals, the scoring rate dropped down quite a bit as Niraj Patel and Yusuf Pathan were quite content in dropping anchor and repairing the early damage.

Langaveltd came back for his second spell and snapped up his third wicket by getting rid of Patel who completely mistimed his shot and Sourav Ganguly held on to a well-judged catch just before the strategy break.

The Royals suffered a huge blow immediately after the break when dangerman Pathan (9) was run out, effectively shattering the team’s hopes of piling up a big total.

A few balls later, the defending champions suffered another jolt when Tyron Henderson, reputed to be a big hitter, was run out off a direct hit from David Hussey.

Captain Shane Warne joined the action with his team at a precarious 62 for seven and it was important for his team to play out the 20 overs and take the score to the 100-run mark.

Teams:

Rajasthan Royals: Rob Quiney, Naman Ojha, Swapnil Asnodkar, Ravindra Jadeja, Yusuf Pathan, Johan Botha, Neeraj patel, Shane Warne (capt), Tyron Henderson, Amit Singh and Munaf Patel.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Brendon McCullum (capt & wk), Sourav Ganguly, Brad Hodge, David Hussey, Yashpal Singh, Laxmi Shukla, Ajit Agarkar, Charl Langeveldt, Sourav Sarkar, Ashok Dinda and Shoaib Shaikh.

Kolkata Knight Riders 189 for 3 (McCullum 81, Hodge 71) beat Chennai Super Kings 188 for 3 (Raina 52, Dhoni 40) by seven wickets…

Brendon McCullum and Brad Hodge helped Kolkata Knight Riders to register a seven-wicket victory over Chennai Super Kings…

Sourav Ganguly departed early, chasing a massive 189 against Chennai Super Kings.

However, Kolkata Knight Riders captain Brendon McCullum and Brad Hodge strated to fire all cylinders to keep alive their teams chances.

But Brendon McCullum got out after scoring a superb 81 off just 48 balls. David Hussey soon joined his captain in the dressing room.

Suresh Raina and captain MS Dhoni enabled Chennai Super Kings post a massive total of 188 for three in their alloted 20 overs.

Chennai Super Kings openers – Parthiv Patel and George Bailey gave their team a flying start after they opted to bat against Kolkata Knight Riders on Monday.

Parthiv got run out after playing a blazing innings that helped Chennai Super Kings gain an upper hand against Kolkata Knight Riders.

After Parthiv’s departure, the other opener in George Bailey also failed to sustain and got run out but the duo had by then laid a strong platform.

Thereafter, Suresh Raina and Chennai skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni simply carried on the momentum and left Kolkata bolwers and fielders grasping for breath.

Raina got out for a well-made 52 but then Albie Morkel gave perfect support to his captain and helped his team reach a huge total in the end.

For today’s match, Chennai have left out Matthew Hayden and George Bailey have come in his place. On the other hand, Kolkata have made quiet a few changes — Ashok Dinda, Ajantha Mendis, Laxmi Shukla and Anureet Singh come in.

The eternal search for a victory is to continue for the bruised and battered Kolkata as they face rampaging Chennai.

It is a nightmare that is refusing to end for Kolkata, which earned the dubious distinction of stumbling to eight successive defeats in the IPL after losing a final-over thriller to Deccan Chargers on Saturday.

Teams:

Chennai Super Kings: Parthiv Patel, George Bailey, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (C) (W), Subramaniam Badrinath, Jacob Oram, Albie Morkel, Shadab Jakati, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Muttiah Muralidaran, Sudeep Tyagi.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Brendon McCullum (C), Sourav Ganguly, Brad Hodge, David Hussey, Wriddhiman Saha (W), Laxmi Shukla, Ajit Agarkar, Murali Kartik, Ashok Dinda, Ajantha Mendis, Anureet Singh.

Ajay Jadeja has claimed that Kolkata’s foreign staff is treating the Indian players of the squad badly.

The former Test cricketer made a sensational claim by hinting that a member of the Kolkata Knight Riders’ foreign coaching staff had racial overtones to his language used for an Indian player during the tournament.

Jadeja said in a TV programme that Indian players were being ill-treated in their own domestic IPL, which has not seen the Kolkata team winning barring in one match where they triumphed via Duckworth-Lewis method.

“You don’t need blogger (to know this),” he said in an apparent reference to the ‘FakeIPLplayer’ blogsite. “I can assure you that there is definitely a divide and Indian players are (being) treated very badly.” Jadeja said.

“I am an Indian player. I know so many players in the team (Kolkata Knight Riders Team). One player was asked to come off the field and when he came off the field he asked “Why did you want me to come off the field? One of the coaches in KKR says ‘You Indian, you do what I ask you to do’,” he said.

The great divide

Jadeja insisted his claims were true, saying he had the information from horses mouth and that the team was not more than a divided house.

“So there is definitely a divide. I know it from the source himself. So the players are not feeling comfortable.

“There is divide between Indian and foreign player and there is a divide between thought process. I mean Sourav Ganguly has a different thought process and you can see that. So this team is divided. There is no doubt about it,” he added.

The KKR team is dealing with controversies way before the start of the tournament when their coach John Buchanan proposed the multiple-captain theory. They have lost eight of their 10 matches so far.

There is also a tell-all blog on team’s activities, adding to insult to its injuries.

Delhi Daredevils 125 for 3 (de Villiers 40*, Warner 36) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 123 for 8 (Ganguly 44, Agarkar 39, Mishra 3-14) by seven wickets…

The reduced canvas of a Twenty20 game is supposed to shorten the gulf between sides but in Johannesburg there was no hiding the difference in quality between the two teams at opposite ends of the table. Another commanding performance from Delhi Daredevils helped them sweep past struggling Kolkata Knight Riders and regain their No.1 spot. After their bowlers, led by Ashish Nehra and Amit Mishra, had restricted Kolkata to a paltry total, the batsmen – led by AB de Villiers – kept the chase in hand and strolled to victory with seventeen balls to spare.

It initially seemed Brendon McCullum would script a surprise after he swatted the game’s second ball for six and jumped out with intent on the next. However, he was wrongly adjudged lbw off Nehra’s next delivery, with the ball going over and wide of offstump, and Delhi gained an advantage they never relinquished.

Worse was to follow for Kolkata three balls later, when the reliable Brad Hodge edged to first slip for a duck. Morne van Wyk, one of the few bright spots in Kolkata’s campaign, continued the procession by slapping a Dirk Nannes short ball to square leg. By the end of the second over Kolkata had lost three of their foreign recruits for nine runs.

Sourav Ganguly and Yashpal Singh tried to get their side back on the rails. Ganguly carved one into the Kolkata dug-out in the fourth over, and Yashpal collected a couple of hard-hit boundaries in the next. The singles were also being picked off, and Ganguly was looking extremely good, particularly square on the off side.

Enter Mishra. He got rid of Yashpal and Wriddhiman Saha in his first over, and Kolkata slid to 46 for 5 after eight. There was some less than assured running between the wickets when Ganguly and Moises Henriques were together before Henriques became Mishra’s third victim after an uncomfortable eight-ball stay that yielded two runs.

Kolkata were then content to take the singles, cutting out most risks – Ganguly opening up only on a free hit, clobbering Mishra over long-on for a massive six. Ajit Agarkar also found some rhythm against Pradeep Sangwan, lofting him for a couple of boundaries. Just as Kolkata seemed to be recovering a bit, Delhi got rid of Ganguly.

Agarkar then threw his bat around to take his side into triple-digits, taking his chances with some uppish shots, to finish on a 29-ball 39.

It wasn’t the most threatening of targets, on an easy-paced track, and Delhi’s batsmen had their task made simpler still by being fed short balls early on. That helped Gautam Gambhir and David Warner get off to a brisk start and, by the time debutant Sourav Sarkar was taken for three fours in the fifth over, Delhi had piled on 45.

They were in a bit of trouble after Gambhir crashed one straight to point and Ishant Sharma removed both Warner and Tillakaratne Dilshan in the same over. Delhi were then 69 for 3 but Kolkata didn’t switch to all-out attack mode. de Villiers and Karthik were allowed to get their eye in, knocking the singles around. The fielding also was not in same league as Delhi’s; Agarkar had only given away three runs in the first five balls of the 14th over, but on the final delivery the long-off fielder made a hash of a simple stop to ruin the tight over. The anguish on the bowler’s face was a familiar sight for Kolkata fans.

de Villiers hastened the victory by striking a boundary almost an over after that, and Delhi were again back to the summit of the IPL table, with a game in hand over their nearest rivals as well.

Siddarth Ravindran is a sub-editor at Cricinfo

Delhi Daredevils 157 for 1 (Gambhir 71*, Dilshan 42*) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 154 for 3 (van Wyk 74, Sangwan 2-29) by nine wickets…

It’s getting hard to keep track of who’s on top of the IPL table. For the third day in a row, there was a new leader, now with the Delhi Daredevils occupying first place after strolling past a luckless Kolkata Knight Riders in Durban. To make victory even sweeter, one of their key batsmen, Gautam Gambhir, was back among the runs after an indifferent start to the tournament.

After Morne van Wyk made the most of his chance at the top of the order to push Kolkata towards a middling total, they fielded like millionaires, granting the Delhi batsmen innumerable chances to simplify the chase.

Gambhir, in particular, was virtually coaxed back to form. He was grassed a couple of times, that too by two of the better fielders in the side, on 22 by Brendon McCullum and on 65 by Moises Henriques, a run-out opportunity was wasted on 35, and he was given plenty of free runs as well. Even the umpire gave him a let-off by not picking a nick to the wicketkeeper when on 45.

An early exchange with Ishant Sharma showed how Delhi were helped along to victory. The first over had Ishant exchanging wry grins with his Ranji team-mate Gambhir after tying him down to an outside-edged four. The smiles were gone after some woeful fielding in his next over: Ashok Dinda made a mess at fine-leg, Sourav Ganguly gave away a couple of extra runs after a less-than-athletic effort at mid-off the next ball, and another Dinda fumble allowed the batsmen to return for two. Ishant lost his cool, and his line in the next delivery, presenting Gambhir a leg-side gift, which was glanced for four. Seventeen came off the over, and Delhi proved hard to rein in after that.

David Warner again showed his ability to clear the boundary, a Hayden-esque down-the-pitch pull off Dinda was the stand-out stroke in his blazing cameo. A couple of lofted drives for four off consecutive deliveries emphasised his ominous form but Ajit Agarkar beat Warner for pace two balls later, and had him holing out to Moises Henriques.

There was little relief for Kolkata, though, as Tillakaratne Dilshan demonstrated his form with a couple of cracking cover drives off Agarkar. Gambhir and Dilshan settled on a recipe of risk-free singles with a sprinkling of boundaries to keep Delhi on course. The missed chances already had the Kolkata camp frustrated, and the sight of several boundaries just beating a diving fielder added to their woes. It was only towards the end that the batsmen opened out, to finish the job with an over to spare.

Such a one-sided game didn’t seem on the cards after van Wyk glued the fragile Kolkata top order to take them near 150. Their opening troubles seemed set to continue when McCullum struggled to get bat on ball in the first over. But in the first delivery of the third over, McCullum’s bolt-down-the-track scythe finally connected and sent the ball rocketing over deep point. A controlled on-drive for four followed next delivery, and a swat sailed past the midwicket boundary three balls later fetched 21 runs off the over.

By the time McCullum clobbered Pradeep Sangwan over midwicket for a flat six, Kolkata were 48 for 0 after five overs, and the two batsmen were sharing a joke in the middle, not a common sight in Kolkata’s campaign so far.

It was Sangwan who was laughing a couple of overs later, when he had McCullum slapping the ball straight to fine leg. The in-form Brad Hodge joined van Wyk, but Sangwan and Mishra kept the brakes on. Kolkata could only score in singles for the first five overs after the Powerplays, and the run-rate had flatlined to 6.45.

It was an uncharacteristic fielding error at long-on from AB de Villiers that helped release the pressure for Kolkata. The next delivery was cut away for four more by van Wyk, who caressed three more boundaries in the over that followed from Sangwan. Right through the innings, van Wyk showed his ability to finesse his way to the runs, rarely attempting one of the most favoured strokes in Twenty20: the mow over midwicket.

Just as the runs started to flow, Hodge was dismissed, slowing Kolkata down again. They were at 111 for 2 after 16, when Henriques and van Wyk opened out to lash 28 off the next two. Kolkata needed a couple more like that to finish off, but Nannes and the outstanding Ashish Nehra kept it full and straight to not let them get into fifth gear.

Kolkata finished with a total that was disappointing, with wickets still in hand, but it was nowhere as disheartening as the shoddiness in the field that was to follow.

Siddarth Ravindran is a sub-editor at Cricinfo

Pretoria (ANI): A smashing half century from Mahela Jayawardene of Punjab Kings XI cost sixth straight defeat to Kolkata Knight Riders at Port Elizabeth on Sunday.

Needing seven from the last over off Ajit Agarkar, Jayawardene got a crucial boundary away and left Irfan Pathan facing the final ball needing one. But Pathan got the ball into the gap to spark off wild celebrations in the Kings XI camp.

Kings XI Punjab 154 for 4 (Jayawardene 52*, Katich 34) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 153 for 3 (Hodge 70*) by six wickets.

Four dropped catches overturned Brad Hodge’s impressive half-century and took Kings XI Punjab back into the top four of the IPL after they chased down 154 to beat the Kolkata Knight Riders by six wickets.

The match went down to the final ball but Punjab had clearly outperformed Kolkata through the chase. Mahela Jayawardene, who scored an unbeaten 41-ball 52, and Irfan Pathan held their nerve to take Punjab through and avoid the match being decided by the Super Over.

Brad Hodge made his second consecutive half-century to power Kolkata to 173. Brad Hodge’s second half-century in two games took the Kolkata Knight Riders to an unexpected 153.

But no one in their right mind would have bet on Kolkata crossing 150 when Brendon McCullum and Chris Gayle began the innings.

Hodge and Sourav Ganguly rotated the strike and looked for loose deliveries to convert to boundaries. Ganguly opened the face of his bat to guide a four to third man and then slogged a huge six off Chawla to square leg.

This six clearly boost Ganguly and he tried to attack every delivery after that. It didn’t work and three balls later Ganguly top-edged a sweep to Kumar Sangakkara for a 23-ball 22. It was only when the in-form van Wyk walked in at Ganguly’s dismissal that another 50 more runs began to look like a possibility. (ANI)

Mumbai Indians 148 for 6 (Duminy 52*) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 139 for 6 (Hodge 73, Zaheer 3-31) by nine runs…

Kolkata Knight Riders made a good attempt at causing possibly the biggest surprise of the season so far but fell short despite smart bowling for most of Mumbai’s innings and a first fifty for them by Brad Hodge, who kept together a chase that threatened to fall away early on.

Mumbai turned the game irreversibly in six overs: the last three of their innings and the first three of Kolkata’s. The main characters in this script were JP Duminy and Zaheer Khan. Duminy’s late assault helped Mumbai scored 42 in the last three overs of an otherwise limp effort and, on the other side of the break, Zaheer removed Kolkata’s openers Chris Gayle and Sourav Ganguly in his first two overs.

Hodge’s innings was, in isolation, the best individual effort of the match. Chasing 149, Kolkata were 8 for 2 in the third over. Hodge consolidated along with Morne van Wyk and, while they didn’t score at a spectacular rate, their 89-run stand kept Kolkata in the hunt. Hodge made an especially slow start, scoring 3 off the first 14 balls he faced. But once he’d stepped out and lofted Harbhajan Singh for a four in the sixth over, he pulled out a remarkable mix of sensible batting and attacking cricketing shots.

The three sixes he hit were hit down the ground without any power at all, just a clean swing of the straight bat. Despite the run-rate climbing every over, Kolkata were always with a chance while Hodge was in. With 61 required off the last six overs, he hit Graham Napier for back-to-back fours. With 51 needed from the last five, he hit Zaheer Khan for a six over long-off, and suddenly Kolkata needed just 38 in the last four overs with seven wickets in hand.

That’s when Lasith Malinga delivered two near-perfect overs of death bowling, giving away just 11 runs and shutting Kolkata out. Mumbai’s last three overs were a mirror image.

Kolkata had done everything right in the first 17 overs, but they still had Duminy to take care of. When Laxmi Shukla came on to bowl the 18th over, Duminy was 22 off 26 and Mumbai had reached only 106. He pulled Shukla for two sixes in the 18th over, and suddenly all Kolkata’s good work from the first 17 overs seemed wasted. Ishant Sharma bowled a superb 19th over, giving away just nine runs and taking a wicket, but Duminy still stood between Kolkata and an easy target.

Two more sixes followed in the last over, both down the ground, off length deliveries from Dinda. The latter came off the last ball, which meant he had scored 30 off the last 11 balls he faced.

It was the most critical phase of the match: only two sixes had been hit before that, both by Sachin Tendulkar, emphasising the concern that Mumbai have been overly reliant on Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya. Once Jayasuriya was out for 6, there was no danger of repeating the hammering they had handed out to Kolkata earlier this week.

It was also a day when Mumbai and Kolkata experimented a lot. Kolkata made proactive and frequent bowling changes, and didn’t let the batsmen settle to any kind of rhythm. After the first 12 overs of the innings, five of seven bowlers used by Kolkata had gone for less than six an over, and four of them had taken a wicket each. Mumbai sent in their hitters Harbhajan Singh and Abhishek Nayar at Nos 3 and 4. Neither move worked and Mumbai paid the price of aiming too high.

When it came to Kolkata’s innings, both teams tinkered with their opening combinations. Ganguly replaced Brendon McCullum at the top of the order, and Mumbai didn’t open with Malinga, saving him for the latter half of the innings. The final experiment worked for Mumbai, with Malinga bowling tight overs towards the end, and it’s the final experiment that counted.

Sidharth Monga is a staff writer at Cricinfo

Kolkata Knight Riders co-owner Shah Rukh Khan dismissed reports that the beleaguered IPL franchisee is up for sale.

Shah Rukh said he had made a lot of emotional investment in building the side and was not selling it.
“The amount of love I have invested in it, nobody in this world can afford to buy it,” Shah Rukh said after casting his vote today.

News reports earlier claimed the actor wanted to wash his hands of KKR, which has been struggling in the second IPL in South Africa.

According to reports, Shah Rukh was in touch with Nokia, Sahara and the Anil Ambani Group to sell the side he had bought last year for Rs 300 crore.

KKR has been plagued by a slew of controversies which went on to affect its performance on the field as the side managed just one win so far in the second IPL.

Coach John Buchanan’s multiple-captain theory, stripping Sourav Ganguly of captaincy and handing it over to Brendon McCullum, sending Aakash Chopra and Sanjay Bangar back home midway through the tournament and reports of a possible players’ revolt against the coach — all affected the side’s morale.

McCullum himself is going through a bad patch and has decided to step down if the side fails to reach the semifinals. Shah Rukh was with the team in South Africa before returning home to cast his vote and he plans not to rejoin team unless it starts winning again.

“If my team continues to lose like this, I am not going back to South Africa. I will go only when they play well and win,” Shah Rukh said.

Another controversy has hit the KKR camp after a report claimed that team owner Shah Rukh Khan is considering selling it off.

According to a report published in Business Standard, there have been discussions with Nokia, Sahara, the Anil Ambani Group and various other companies regarding the rights over the KKR team.

KKR was bought by SRK only a year ago at the stake of over USD six million. However, King Khan’s Public Relations manager has refused to confirm any news pertaining to the issue and none of the people who are supposedly approached have confirmed any development.

Business Standard quoted Sahara India’s communication director, Abhijit Sarkar as saying, “We have not been approached by Shah Rukh Khan yet. But if he does we would be happy to buy the team.”

However, D ShivKumar, vice president and Managing Director (Markets), Nokia India has claimed through a message that “ShahRukh Khan will keep the team”, while a Reliance Communications spokesperson said: “A lot of people negotiate with Anil Ambani. I cannot comment unless there is something concrete on table.”

The poor performance by the Knight Riders and the rising cost of keeping the team might have instigated the idea of selling it off.

King Khan may just have to pay double next year as compared to what he is paying right now if the BCCI does not increase the number of teams, according to a Red Chillies official. The total annual cost for the team comes down to about USD two million and because of Kolkata Municipal Corporation and Cricket Association of Bengal interventions the cost for the team has trebled.

The report has also stated that according to initial calculations, Red Chillies had to pay USD 180,360 per match and was supposed to earn USD 601,000 if all stadium tickets were sold at Eden Gardens. Red Chillies had to pay USD 40,000 to the police. The municipal tax had to be paid USD 10,020. So its expenses per match would have been over USD 200,400. But this figure had trebled.

Last year, however, Kolkata Police demanded USD 400,801 as security fees, against almost USD 50,000 that the organisers of the IPL offered. Then, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) demanded around USD 50,000 from Red Chillies as amusement tax for holding IPL matches at Eden Gardens.

To settle the dispute between Kolkata Police and the IPL organisers over the cost of security arrangements at Eden Gardens, Red Chillies Entertainment had to agree to pay Rs 75 lakh as security fees.

About 5,500 uniformed personnel and about 1,500 sleuths were deployed to secure the stadium and its surrounding areas, since many celebrities were expected to watch the IPL matches at Eden Gardens.