Shah Rukh Khan, owner of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), met West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Sunday and discussed the possibility of setting up a cricket academy in Bengal as well as a state-of-art film city in Tollygunge of Kolkata.

Khan presented Bhattacharjee with a Knight Riders helmet, while Bhattacharjee presented Khan with a packet of Darjeeling tea.

Addressing the media at a press conference after his meeting with Bhattacharjee, Shah Rukh Khan said, “We may have lost our chances to make it to the semi-finals this year but I will be back with the same team next year and this team will work hard to be the champions in the next IPL season.”

However, according to sources, Khan met Bhattacharjee on Sunday to resolve certain issues like imposition of entertainment tax and other increase in expenses which were not on the KKR agenda initially.

Khan had earlier asked Sourav Ganguly, KKR captain, to speak to Bhattacharjee and other influencial personalities in West Bengal to settle the growing rift between the Kolkata Police, Kolkata Municipal Corporation, and a few other organisations on one hand, and Khan’s company Red Chillies Entertainment on the other.

It was alleged that the Kolkata Knight Riders’ owner Shah Rukh Khan and the team’s captain Sourav Ganguly were not seeing eye to eye on some issues.

The most important issue between the two was probably Ganguly’s reluctance to talk to Bhattacharjee about waiver of entertainment tax slapped on the team. There was also a difference of opinion at the time of the players’ auction with Ganguly wanting to have Adam Gilchrist in his team while the slot went to Brendon McCullum because of SRK’s interest.

Moreover, Khan and Ganguly as well as team coach John Buchannan reportedly differed on team selection and strategy.

Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) had demanded Rs 25 lakh from Red Chillies Entertainment as amusement tax for holding IPL matches at Eden Gardens.

Red Chillies Entertainment has so far paid Rs 10 lakh and has assured KMC it will pay the rest Rs 15 lakh soon.

Second, to settle the dispute between Kolkata Police and DLF Indian Premier League over cost of security arrangements at Eden Gardens, Red Chillies Entertainment agreed to pay Rs 75 lakh as security fees.

The stand-off between Kolkata Police and DLF Indian Premier League was over security fees, as KP had quoted Rs 2 crore as security fees while the organisers had offered Rs 50 lakh.
Source:business-standard.com