After a devastating performance of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in IPL 2009, the KKR has reappointed Sourav Ganguly as the team captain. You know that Sourav lost the KKR captaincy this year and
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To be honest, I am not a big fan of Shah Rukh Khan and most of his films, though there is no doubt, he is now one of the superstars of Bollywood cinema and has churned out a number of box office hits including few classics. However, I have great respect for Shah Rukh Khan for his struggle and hard working mentality which turned him from a lesser-known TV actor to a Bollywood superstar, even though he did not come from any filmy family background.
Well, now it seems that Shah Rukh Khan is putting all his efforts and hard-work to make his IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders a mess. Here are some of those examples:
1.
2. There are reports out in the media suggest that Shah Rukh Khan is planning to move his Knight Riders team base from Kolkata to Ahmedabad, looking to avoid controversies like the one he faced when Ganguly was sacked as Kolkata captain.
3. The word Kolkata has been dropped from Kolkata Knight Riders merchandise this season. It has been reported that Kolkata Knight Riders is the most successful IPL franchise of last season in terms of revenue earned. In fact, KKR earned Rs 13 crore as profit in IPL 2008. However, Shah Rukh Khan this season is reportedly more focused on international market for selling KKR merchandise.
Kolkata fans have already revealed their fury at Ganguly being stripped of captaincy. Shah Rukh defended the protest, stating that the decision was taken for the sake of the team’s long term development. Well, I do not know how he wants to develop Kolkata team by taking away the captaincy from Ganguly. The way Ganguly was sacked as captain is a complete disrespect towards the former great of Indian cricket. Ganguly has huge experience to his credit and no body in the Kolkata Knight Riders has as much experience as Ganguly when it comes to captaincy or leadership. Moreover, as a leader Ganguly has the mental strength and toughness which is required when you are leading a team at the high level and this is very important when you are going into the next level of the competition
Moreover, Shah Rukh’s speculated plan to move the team base from Kolkata to Ahmedabad has already been criticized by the Kolkata people. No doubt, it would decrease the popularity of KKR in West Bengal as well as in
Shah Rukh Khan is business savvy man who has a very good sense of marketing which I first experienced during the promotional period of his 2007 flick
Similarly, Shah Rukh Khan showed disrespect to Ganguly by taking away the captaincy from him. Ganguly’s performance last season was not bad either. In fact, he was Kolkata’s leading run scorer in the tournament. Moreover, there was no problem with his leadership last season. Here, my point is that if Ganguly has the ability claim a regular place in Kolkata Knight Riders eleven, then what is the problem with his captaincy? Even some of the Indian players of KKR revealed their disappointment over the controversy regarding captaincy.
Shifting the base of the team to Ahmedabad, I think, will not work well for Shah Rukh Khan who is now trying to make Knight Riders a global brand, but I am not sure if Shah Rukh will be able to do so by dropping the name Kolkata from it. First of all, cricket as a game is not quietly popular in all corners of the world. Moreover, IPL 2009 competition has already shown that the big-money tournament does not have huge popularity outside
Shah Rukh Khan should know that cricket is a different ball game which has very little similarity with Bollywood industry. Criticizing Amitabh Bachchan in Bollywood is not same to showing disrespect to Gavaskar and Ganguly in cricket. Shah Rukh Khan should accept the fact that he does not have adequate knowledge about cricket and he should not involve into to team management. Rather, Mr. Khan should appoint someone to manage the team.
Kolkata Knight Riders won their last match in IPL 2009 against defending champion Rajasthan Royals yesterday (Wednesday). With this victory, Kolkata finished their IPL 2009 mission on a winning note, even though their overall performance is totally disappointing. In fact, the Shah Rukh Khan franchise finished 8th in the 8-team tournament with only 7 points from 14 matches.
Rajasthan went into the game knowing that a victory would take them to the semi final, but Shane Warne boys failed to deliver their best and eventually lost by 4 wickets. Batting first, Rajasthan could put on a slim total of 102, losing 9 wickets. For Kolkata, Charl Langeveldt picked up 3 wickets, while Ajit Agarkar got 2 wickets.
In reply, Kolkata batsmen also struggled to reach the target as they lost 6 wickets only for 45. In fact, none of their top five batsmen could reach the double figure. However, Kolkata reached the winning total thanks to Laxmi Shukla’s 46-ball 48 and Agarkar’s 17-ball 13.
Kolkata Knight Riders is the only team in IPL 2009 who are performing poorly so far in the tournament. If you look at the other teams in the tournament, you can see that they have at least put on some good performances and won some matches. In fact, seventh-placed Mumbai Indians have 4 wins to their credit from 10 matches. However, Shah Rukh Khan-owned Kolkata Knight Riders have only 1 win from 11 matches. Can you believe that?
Well, it does not matter whether you believe it or not. The fact is that they are currently at the bottom of the point table with 3 points from 11 games, and their performance does not reflect the strength of the side. The main problem is that Kolkata Knight Riders have become more concerned with business, rather than on field performance. They bought
Before the start of IPL 2009, other teams were concerned about their squad, while Kolkata Knight Riders management was more concerned about organizing a competition through which they would select their cheerleaders. I do not know whether cheerleaders could anyhow cheer up their players to perform better in the tournament. Moreover, their coach tried to keep his team as well as himself in the centre of the media, by introducing his multi-captain theory.
The most important thing is the leadership. I do not know what was going on in their mind when they stripped off
Shah Rukh Khan and his team management might answer these questions better. What I would like to say is that Kolkata Knight Riders should focus more on cricket, rather than business. Otherwise, Kolkata Knight Riders would always remain an ‘Anna Kournikova of tennis’ who was always in the limelight, but only for the wrong reasons.
