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Kolkata Knight Riders (also referred to as KKR) is the franchise representing Kolkata in the Indian Premier League. The team is led by Sourav Ganguly, who is also the Icon Player for the team, and coached by John Buchanan. The official theme of the team is Korbo, Lodhbo, Jeetbo Re (We will do it, Fight for it, Win it) and the official colors are black and gold.

Franchise History

Kolkata Knight Riders is one of the franchise of the eight team 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, Jai Mehta.

2008 IPL Season

Performance

The Knight Riders had a good beginning to the season by winning their first match against Royal Challengers Bangalore. In this match, Knight Riders' opening batsman Brendon McCullum scored 158 runs which is a record for the highest runs ever scored by a batsman in a Twenty-20 match. The team could not utilise the services of Shoaib Akhtar for the initial matches of the season since he was serving a ban. However, the team started experiencing failures which included their match against Mumbai Indians, in which they were bowled out for 67 runs, the lowest score by a team in IPL. When their match against Delhi Daredevils was washed out due to rain, they lost any chance of making it to the semifinals.

Controversy

There were reports of a rift between Shahrukh Khan and Sourav Ganguly over various issues such as team composition, Sourav'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 Sourav to speak to the West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya about it, which was refused by Sourav). 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 Sourav. However, the team management issued a statement that the reports of a possible rift are untrue. Shahrukh Khan was further barred by the ICC 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.

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 black and gold. Black stands for the courage of Maa Kali and gold stands for the spirit of winning. 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 the Australian captain Ricky Ponting, allrounder Chris Gayle, David Hussey, Tatenda Taibu and wicket keeper batsman Brendon McCullum. The main bowlers are Shoaib Akhtar, Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda, Ajit Agarkar and Murali Karthik. Team also includes Umar Gul, Mohammad Hafeez and Salman Butt. Australian batsman Brad Hodge and Sri Lankan bowler, Ajantha Mendis, are recent additions to the squad.

Current Squad

Batsmen

No.	Name	Age	Nationality	Batting Style	Bowling/Fielding	Bidding/Sign-in Price
8	David Hussey	30	Australia	Right-handed	Right-arm off-break	US$ 625,000
14	Ricky Ponting	33	Australia	Right-handed	Right-arm medium	US$ 400,000
00	Salman Butt	23	Pakistan	Left-handed	Right-arm off-break	US$ 100,000
11	Akash Chopra	30	India	Right-handed	Right-arm medium	US$ 62,500 - Delhi - Ranji Trophy Player
	Cheteshwar Pujara	22	India	Right-handed	Right-arm off-break	US$ 62,500 - Saurashtra - Ranji Trophy Player
	Rohan Banerjee	19	India	Left-handed	Right-arm medium	US$ 62,500 - Bengal Under-22 Team Player
	Yashpal Singh	26	India	Right-handed	Right-arm medium	US$ 62,500 - Services - Ranji Trophy Player
	Debabrata Das	21	India	Right-handed	Right-arm off-break	US$ 62,500 - Bengal - Under-22 Team Player
	Brad Hodge	33	Australia	Right-handed	Right-arm off-break	US$ 62,500

Wicket Keepers / All Rounders

No.	Name	Age	Nationality	Batting Style	Bowling/Fielding	Bidding/Sign-in Price
1	Sourav Ganguly (Captain) ♠	35	India	Left-handed	Right-arm medium	US$ 1,092,500 (Icon Player) ♠
13	Tatenda Taibu	24	Zimbabwe	Right-handed	Wicket keeper	US$ 125,000
6	Wriddhiman Prashanta Saha	23	India	Right-handed	Wicket keeper	US$ 62,500 - Bengal - Ranji Trophy Player
42	Brendon McCullum	26	New Zealand	Right-handed	Wicket keeper	US$ 700,000
	Chris Gayle	28	Jamaica	Left-handed	Right-arm off-break	US$ 800,000
68	Ajit Agarkar	30	India	Right-handed	Right-arm fast-medium	US$ 350,000
5	Mohammad Hafeez	27	Pakistan	Right-handed	Right-arm off-break	US$ 100,000
	Iqbal Abdullah	18	India	Left-handed	Left-arm orthodox spin	US$ 30,000 - India - Under-19 Team Player
7	Laxmi Ratan Shukla	26	India	Right-handed	Right-arm fast-medium	US$ 62,500 - Bengal - Ranji Trophy Player

Bowlers

No.	Name	Age	Nationality	Batting Style	Bowling/Fielding	Bidding/Sign-in Price
29	Ishant Sharma	19	India	Right-handed	Right-arm fast-medium	US$ 950,000
14	Shoaib Akhtar	32	Pakistan	Right-handed	Right-arm fast	US$ 450,000
25	Murali Kartik	31	India	Left-handed	Left-arm orthodox spin	US$ 425,000
	Ajantha Mendis	23	Sri Lanka	Left-handed	Left-arm orthodox spin
	Umar Gul	24	Pakistan	Right-handed	Right-arm fast-medium	US$ 150,000
	Siddarth Kaul	17	India	Right-handed	Right-arm medium	US$ 30,000 - India - Under-19 Team Player
	Ranadeb Bose	29	India	Right-handed	Right-arm fast-medium	US$ 62,500 - Bengal - Ranji Trophy Player
	Sourashish Lahiri	26	India	Right-handed	Left-arm orthodox spin	US$ 62,500 - Bengal - Ranji Trophy Player
2	Ashok Dinda	26	India	Right-handed	Right-arm fast-medium	US$ 62,500 - Bengal - Ranji Trophy Player

Administration and Coaching staff

Front Office

• Owners - Shahrukh Khan, Juhi Chawla & Jai Mehta (Red Chillies Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.)
• CEO - Joy Bhattacharya
• President - TBA

Coaches

• Head Coach - John Buchanan
• Assistant Head Coach - Matthew Mott
• Physiotherapist - Andrew Leipus
• Physical Trainer - Adrian Le Roux, Michael Buchanan

Fixtures and Results

Kolkata Knight Riders 2008 Season Template:WebSlice-begin{| class="wikitable" |- ! width=5%|No. ! width=10%|Date ! width=20%|Opponent ! width=10%|Venue ! width=40%|Result |- ||1 || 18 April || Royal Challengers Bangalore || Bangalore || Won by 140 runs, MoM – Brendon McCullum – 158* (73) |- ||2 || 20 April || Deccan Chargers || Kolkata || Won by 5 wickets, MoM – David Hussey – 38* (43) |- ||3 || 26 April || Chennai Super Kings ||Chennai || Lost by 9 wickets |- ||4 || 29 April || Mumbai Indians || Kolkata || Lost by 7 wickets |- ||5 || 1 May || Rajasthan Royals || Jaipur || Lost by 45 runs |- ||6 || 3 May || Kings XI Punjab || Mohali || Lost by 9 runs |- ||7 || 8 May || Royal Challengers Bangalore || Kolkata || Won by 5 runs, MoM – Sourav Ganguly – 20 (22) and 1/7 (3 overs) |- ||8 || 11 May || Deccan Chargers || Hyderabad || Won by 23 runs, MoM – Sourav Ganguly – 91 (57), 2/25 (4 overs) and 2 catches |- ||9 || 13 May || Delhi Daredevils || Kolkata || Won by 23 runs, MoM – Shoaib Akhtar – 4/11 (3 overs) |- ||10 || 16 May || Mumbai Indians || Mumbai || Lost by 8 wickets |- ||11 || 18 May || Chennai Super Kings || Kolkata || Lost by 3 runs (decided by D/L method due to rain interruption) |- ||12 || 20 May || Rajasthan Royals || Kolkata || Lost by 6 wickets |- ||13 || 22 May || Delhi Daredevils || Delhi || Match abandoned due to rain |- ||14 || 25 May || Kings XI Punjab || Kolkata || Won by 3 wickets, MoM – Umar Gul – 4/23 (4 overs) and 24 (11) |- |}Template:WebSlice-end

External links

• Official Homepage

References

1. "McCullum's record 158 leads rout". Cricinfo.com. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
2. "Mumbai Indians v Kolkata Knight Riders, IPL, Mumbai". Cricinfo.com. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
3. "All over for Knight Riders in 2008 - Post Kotla washout, even a win in last match won't be enough". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
4. ^ "All is not well between SRK and Ganguly". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
5. "No rift between Shah Rukh and Ganguly: Knight Riders". The Hindu. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
6. "SRK says he will boycott remaining matches of IPL". Ibnlive.com. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
7. ^ "King Khan launches Kolkata Knight Riders". Yahoo. 2008-03-11. Retrieved 2008-03-11.
8. ^ "Kolkata Knightriders launched amidst gloom". Hindustan Times. 2008-03-11. Retrieved 2008-03-11.
9. "Kolkata Knight Riders Squad". Cricinfo. 2008-04-26. Retrieved 2008-04-28.
10. "Hodge joins IPL for five weeks". Cricinfo. 2008-04-26. Retrieved 2008-04-28.
11. "Shoaib sued by PCB and sacked by IPL". The Guardian. 2008-04-03. Retrieved 2008-04-10.
12. "Mott heads to Kolkata as Buchanan's IPL assistant". Cricifo. 2008-03-26. Retrieved 2006-03-26.
13. ^ "Leipus, Le Roux for Team Calcutta". The Telegraph. 2008-02-21. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
14. "Buchanan son to join support staff". The Telegraph. 2008-04-08. Retrieved 2008-04-08.

• Indian Premier League teams
• Kolkata
• 2008 in cricket