Mumbai, May 22 It’s almost curtains for Shah Rukh Khan (SRK) – owned Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). However, that doesn’t seem to dampen the spirits of the SRK camp. Kolkata Knight Riders may soon don a new avatar of a full-fledged Sports company. Industry sources disclose that it will be on the lines of international football team Manchester United (MU), which is the world’s richest football club and valued in excess of 245 million pounds.

Joy Bhattacharya, CEO, Kolkata Knight Riders said, “We are planning a number of things around KKR. However, we will be able to disclose the complete plan after June 2. Right now, the entire concentration is on the on-going tournament.” Bhattacharya said that the idea was to make a complete franchise out of KKR, that will includes all the facets like merchandising, exhibition of Sports around the world, a Sports academy and possible tie-up with clubs around the globe. Earlier, both SRK and Sourav Ganguly had expressed this desire during a television interview. “The objective was never to stop after launching the team,” said Bhattacharya. Analysts say it will be a daunting task for team SRK as even MU can hardly rely on money from T-shirts, posters or footballs – they really have to sell football – in the ground and on the TV. So what Sports will SRK sell? Whether he will look beyond cricket and also embrace hockey, football or other Sports remains unanswered.

Right from its inception, KKR has always won an edge over others in terms of capturing the limelight. Be it the starry title-holders SRK and Juhi Chawla or for the blazing golden Viking helmet, or the team theme ‘Korbo, Lorbo, Jitbo Re’ created by Vishal-Shekhar – the team retained the hype and publicity.

Even the team has some of the biggest names in the global cricket arena including Sourav Ganguly, the former captain of the Indian cricket team.

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. The team also includes Umar Gul, Mohammad Hafeez and Salman Butt and Australian batsman Brad Hodge.
Source: financialexpress.com