Kolkata Knight Riders - Misplaced Pages

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Revision as of 13:34, 17 September 2020 by 103.70.198.75 (talk) (→Home ground)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) Kolkata based franchise cricket team of the Indian Premier League Not to be confused with Trinbago Knight Riders. For other uses, see KKR (disambiguation).

Cricket team

Kolkata Knight Riders

League

Indian Premier League

Personnel

Captain

Dinesh Karthik

Coach

Brendon McCullum

Owner

Red Chillies Entertainment (55%)
Mehta Group (45%)

Team information

City

Kolkata, West Bengal, India

Colours

Founded

2008

Home ground

Eden Gardens

Capacity

68,000

History

Indian Premier League wins

2 (2012, 2014)

Official website

kkr.in

T20I kit

Kolkata Knight Riders in 2020

The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are a franchise cricket team representing the city of Kolkata in the Indian Premier League. The franchise is owned by Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, actress Juhi Chawla and her spouse Jay Mehta. The home of the Knight Riders is the iconic Eden Gardens stadium.

The franchise, which has gained immense popularity due to its association with celebrity owners, qualified for the IPL playoffs for the first time in 2011. They became the IPL champions in 2012, by defeating Chennai Super Kings in the final. They repeated the feat in 2014, defeating Kings XI Punjab. The Knight Riders hold the record for the longest winning streak by any Indian team in T20s (14).

The leading run-scorer of the side is Gautam Gambhir, while the leading wicket-taker is Sunil Narine. 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 $104 million in 2018, second highest among IPL franchises. In 2019, their value was estimated at ₹629 crore (US$74 million).

Franchise history

In 2007, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) created the cricket tournament Indian Premier League based on the Twenty20 form of the game. 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, equal to approximately ₹2.98 billion at that time. Sourav Ganguly, former captain of the Indian national team, a native of West Bengal and the current President of BCCI (Board Cricket Control of India) was named the Icon player for the team. The name of the team is a reference to the popular 1980s American television series Knight Rider.

In June 2015, they bought a stake in the Caribbean Premier League cricket team Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel and later in 2016, renamed it Trinbago Knight Riders.

Livery

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 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 blazing purple Corinthian helmet trimmed with gold, with Kolkata Knight Riders written within a shield was introduced.

The tagline of the team was "All the King's Men" during the first four seasons. 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." 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.

The main theme of the team Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo Re (we will act, fight and win!) was scored by Vishal-Shekhar duo. A Knight Riders album featuring several singers and music composers including Usha Uthup and Bappi Lahiri was also created.

Rivalries

The Knight Riders have historically been a successful franchise in the IPL. This success has led to them having many rivalries among other teams.

Mumbai Indians

Both teams play in major markets as the Indians play in Mumbai and the Knight Riders play in Kolkata. The Mumbai Indians is the most successful IPL franchise with four championships but until Mumbai's third championship, both teams were tied with two championships. In the first two seasons of the IPL, Mumbai swept Kolkata in all four games. It was not until the 2010 IPL Season that Kolkata won against Mumbai. Both sides have been captained by Indian cricket legends at one point (Mumbai was captained by Sachin Tendulkar and Kolkata was captained by Sourav Ganguly). This rivalry has often played out in Mumbai's favor as they have won 19 games compared to Kolkata's 6 wins but has been known league wide as an exciting match-up. Both have played each other twice in the playoffs.

In 2011, both teams played against each other in the Eliminator round as both franchises made their first playoff appearances. This marked the first time the two teams met in the playoffs. Mumbai won the match by four wickets and advanced to the next round, ultimately losing to the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

In 2012, both teams were chasing a playoff spot in the tournament. The game started out terribly for KKR as their batting side couldn't score runs. KKR picked up the pace and ended the inning with 140/7. Mumbai was expected to win at that point and started to attack quickly and started 60/2 with more than 10 overs left to play. Mumbai quickly collapsed and finished their innings with 108 runs and all out. Sunil Narine was named Man of the Match with 4 wickets and KKR eliminated MI from the playoffs. KKR won its first championship that season. Knight Riders owner Shah Rukh Khan was handed a 5-year ban at Wankhede Stadium, home of the Mumbai Indians. He was accused of walking on the field post game and abusing the security guards. In 2015, the ban was lifted.

Mumbai and Kolkata both faced off in the opening match of the 2015 season. Mumbai was up to bat in the first innings as they scored a promising 168/3. This charge was led by captain, Rohit Sharma with his 98 runs. Kolkata captain, Gautam Gambhir had 57 runs and led his side to victory. Suryakumar Yadav's 46 runs were crucial to KKR's chase.

In 2017, Mumbai earned its 100th T20 win against KKR. Later that season, both sides met in the playoffs in the Qualifier 2 round. KKR had a poor batting performance as they posted 107 runs and all out. Mumbai was able to capitalize and won the match. Mumbai went onto the finals to beat Rising Pune Supergiant to claim their third championship.

From 2015–2018, Mumbai Indians held an eight-game winning streak against the Kolkata Knight Riders. That streak was broken on 29 April 2019, as KKR posted a total of 232 runs and won by 34 runs. Both sides displayed excellent hitting as KKR's Andre Russell scored 80 runs and MI's Hardik Pandya scored 91 runs. KKR holds the record for highest total for an IPL match played at Eden Gardens. This victory was KKR's 100th T20 win.

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 was the largest cricket stadium in India and had a seating capacity of over 90,000. In 2011, the stadium was renovated to meet the standards set by the International Cricket Council 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. In 2013, two of the team's home matches were hosted by the JSCA International Cricket Stadium in Ranchi.

Panoramic view of the Eden Gardens stadium during IPL 2008

Kit manufacturers and sponsors

Multinational communications corporation Nokia was the official founding sponsor of the Kolkata Knight Riders and remained their principal sponsor until 2014. In 2015, Chinese mobile phone manufacturer Gionee took over as their principal sponsor and signed a three-year deal worth ₹540 million (US$6.3 million). In 2018, Nokia returned as the main sponsor of the Knight Riders, signing a two-year deal. Star Plus, Reebok, HDIL, Kit Kat, SB Nation, Doublemint, SAP AG, Asian Paints, Fever 104 FM, Red FM 93.5, The Telegraph, Seiko, U.S. Polo Assn., Uber, Manyavar, Dish TV, Sansui Electric, Ola Cabs, Exide, Ibibo, Sprite, Dream11, Pepsi and Sony Music India have all formerly been either co-sponsors or partners.

In 2020, MPL became their principal sponsor. As of 2020, they have co-sponsorship deals with Jio, Lux Cozi, Royal Stag, Greenply, TV9, Colgate and Medimix along with others. They also have partnerships with Mai Dubai, BKT Tyres and Kingfisher Calendar.

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 at a whopping price of $600,000 dollars. 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. On 26 April 2009, KKR administration sent back two of its players Akash Chopra and Sanjay Bangar on the premises of poor performance. Shane Bond was acquired after releasing Ricky Ponting, Morne van Wyk and the Pakistani players Umar Gul, Salman Butt, Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Akhtar before the third season. Moises Henriques was traded to Delhi in return for Owais Shah and 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.

2011 heralded the beginning of a new era for KKR. 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, which received both national and international press attention. The team appointed Gautam Gambhir, who was bought for a record-breaking $2.4 million as skipper. Yusuf Pathan was also picked up for a whopping $2.1 million. Other international names who were added include Shakib Al Hasan, Brad Haddin, Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee, Ryan ten Doeschate, Eoin Morgan and James Pattinson. Haddin was replaced by Mark Boucher mid-season due to injury.

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 and Iresh Saxena from Bengal, Saurashtra's Chirag Jani and Sanju Samson from Kerala. 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. 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 the 2017 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 were Rishi Dhawan, Ishank Jaggi, Sayan Ghosh and R Sanjay Yadav. At the time, Andre Russell was 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 2018 and Robin Uthappa was named vice-captain. Mitchell Starc was ruled out before the season due to injury and Tom Curran was announced as his replacement. Ahead of the auction for IPL 2019, eight players were released from the squad including Mitchell Starc and his replacement Tom Curran.

At the auction, their high-profile buys were Carlos Brathwaite for ₹50 million (US$590,000) and New Zealand pacer Lockie Ferguson for ₹16 million (US$190,000). Other players bought were South African pacer Anrich Nortje, English duo Harry Gurney and Joe Denly as well as uncapped Indian players Nikhil Naik, Prithvi Raj Yarra and Shrikant Mundhe for their base prices of ₹2 million (US$23,000) each. Before IPL 2020, KKR released 11 players from their squad and also traded in Siddhesh Lad from Mumbai Indians.

At the 2020 IPL Auction, KKR bought pace bowler Pat Cummins for 15.5 crores. This was the biggest buy in the auction. KKR also purchased Eoin Morgan, who just came off as captain of the World Cup winning England squad. He was bought for 5.25 crores.

Seasons

Season	League standing	Final standing
2008	6th out of 8	League stage
2009	8th out of 8	League stage
2010	6th out of 8	League stage
2011	4th out of 10	Playoffs
2012	1st out of 9	Champions
2013	7th out of 9	League stage
2014	1st out of 8	Champions
2015	5th out of 8	League stage
2016	4th out of 8	Playoffs
2017	3rd out of 8	Playoffs
2018	3rd out of 8	Playoffs
2019	5th out of 8	League stage
2020

The Knight Riders qualified for the Champions League Twenty20 in 2011, 2012 and 2014, which was the last edition of the tournament before it being permanently called off. The team was eliminated in the group stage in 2011 and 2012, but finished as runners-up in the ultimate season.

Current squad

Template:Kolkata Knight Riders Roster

Administration and support staff

Position	Name
Owner	Shah Rukh Khan (Red Chillies Entertainment), Jay Mehta, Juhi Chawla (Mehta Group)
CEO and managing director	Venky Mysore
Team manager	Wayne Bentley
Head coach	Brendon McCullum
Assistant coach	Abhishek Nayar
Mentor	David Hussey
Bowling coach	Kyle Mills
Assistant bowling coach	Omkar Salvi
Spin bowling consultant	Pravin Tambe
Fielding coach	James Foster
Physiotherapist	Kamlesh Jain
Strength and conditioning coach	Chris Donaldson
Data and video analyst	AR Srikkanth

Statistics

Overall results

IPL summary of results
Year	Played	Wins	Losses	Tied	NR	Win %	Position
2008	14	6	7	0	1	46.16	6/8
2009	14	3	9	1	1	23.07	8/8
2010	14	7	7	0	0	50.00	6/8
2011	15	8	7	0	0	53.33	4/10
2012	18	12	5	0	1	70.58	1/9
2013	16	6	10	0	0	37.50	7/9
2014	16	11	4	1	0	68.75	1/8
2015	14	7	6	0	1	53.84	5/8
2016	15	8	7	0	0	53.33	4/8
2017	16	9	7	0	0	56.25	3/8
2018	16	9	7	0	0	56.25	3/8
2019	14	6	7	1	0	42.86	5/8
2020							-/8
Total	182	92	83	3	4	51.68

Abandoned matches are counted as NR (no result)
Win or loss by super over or boundary count are counted as tied.

Source=ESPNCricinfo

Result summary

Opposition	Span	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	Win %
Chennai Super Kings	2008–2015; 2018–present	20	7	13	0	35.00
Delhi Capitals	2008–present	23	13	9	1	58.69
Kings XI Punjab	2008–present	25	17	8	0	68.00
Mumbai Indians	2008–present	25	6	19	0	24.00
Rajasthan Royals	2008–2015; 2018–present	20	10	8	2	55.00
Rising Pune Supergiant	2016–2017	4	3	1	0	75.00
Gujarat Lions	2016–2017	4	1	3	0	25.00
Royal Challengers Bangalore	2008–present	24	14	10	0	58.33
Sunrisers Hyderabad	2013–present	17	10	7	0	58.82
Deccan Chargers	2008–2012	9	7	2	0	77.77
Kochi Tuskers Kerala	2011	2	0	2	0	0.00
Pune Warriors India	2011–2013	5	4	1	0	80.00

Source: ESPNCricinfo

Overall results in CLT20

Main article: Champions League T20

Year	Matches	Wins	Losses	No result	% win	% Summary
2011	6	3	3	0	50.00	5/10 (13)
2012	4	1	2	1	33.33	6/10 (14)
2014	6	5	1	0	83.33	2/10 (14)
Total	16	9	6	1	60.00

Result summary in Champions League
Opposition	Span	Matches	Won	Lost	No result	% win
Auckland Aces	2011–2012	2	1	1	0	50.00
Chevrolet Warriors	2011	1	1	0	0	100.00
Delhi Daredevils	2012	1	0	1	0	0.00
Perth Scorchers	2012–2014	2	1	0	1	100.00
Royal Challengers Bangalore	2011	1	1	0	0	100.00
Somerset Sabres	2011	2	0	2	0	0.00
South Australia Redbacks	2011	1	0	1	0	0.00
Nashua Titans	2012	1	1	0	0	100.00
Chennai Super Kings	2014	2	1	1	0	50.00
Dolphins	2014	1	1	0	0	100.00
Hobart Hurricanes	2014	1	1	0	0	100.00
Lahore Lions	2014	1	1	0	0	100.00

In popular culture

A reality show by the name Knights and Angels aired on NDTV Imagine in 2009 to pick six cheerleaders for the Knight Riders for the 2009 edition of the Indian Premier League.