Kolkata Knight Riders owner Shah Rukh Khan said the captain of his team for the Twenty20 event’s second season in South Africa will be named on April 16, two days before the tournament kicks off.

“We will decide first and announce (the captain) on April 16,” he told television channels.

Shah Rukh, who left for South Africa last night, said that he will return on April 28, to cast his vote on April 30.

“I will go back in the first week of May,” he said.
Source – espnstar.com

When veteran Australian coach John Buchanan recently floated the idea of having multiple captains in Twenty20, it became a burning issue, literally.

His effigies were burnt in Kolkata by fans of former India captain Sourav Ganguly who believed the concept was meant to dilute the powers of their popular ‘Prince of Kolkata’.

The 56-year-old Buchanan, who had a successful eight-year stint as Australia’s coach, said the new concept would be an advantage in the fast-moving shortest version of the game.

‘There will always be a nominated captain, who goes for the toss. He could look after the bowling, make the changes, take care of the strategy aspect,’ he told the Kolkata-based Telegraph newspaper.

‘We could also have a fielding captain, who sets the field keeping in mind the planning done for that particular match. The fielding captain complements the nominated/bowling captain.

‘Both will be supported by the coach, who’ll be the captain off the field. When the team is batting, the coach will be the captain.’

Buchanan, cricket manager of the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, sparked a worldwide debate with his concept and led to the pro-Ganguly protests.

The controversy did not die down and it eventually required Knight Riders owner, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, to broker a truce.

‘I am not doing it for the sake of grabbing headlines,’ said Buchanan. ‘I am doing it for reasons that’ll benefit the game.

‘Having one captain to run the show in the traditional form is okay. In Twenty20, though, I don’t believe we need a single captain to be responsible for all the decisions.’

Ganguly said they would ‘wait and see’ how the idea works when the IPL opens on Saturday.

‘It’s completely new. It has never happened in sports,’ he said. ‘There are no gaurantees.’

Teams like Australia and India have had different Test and one-day captains, but not more than one skipper in a match in any form of the game.

South African coach Mickey Arthur promptly shot down the idea.

‘It has to be one leader always,’ he said. ‘I favour the one-captain situation because everybody in the team is clear about who is in charge at all times.

‘If you have more than one guy as leader, you don’t know whom to turn to. I really don’t know what he (Buchanan) is aiming at.’

Australian captain Ricky Ponting saw no problems with the concept.

‘I know Tassie (Tasmania) actually experimented with that a few years ago. One was doing the field placings and one was doing the bowling changes,’ said Ponting.

‘So it just sort of lightened the load up on the actual captain and gave him a bit more opportunity to think about different things. I don’t see there’s a lot of problems with it.’
Source – khaleejtimes.com

Bringing the Indian Premier League (IPL) to South Africa is a means of saying “thank you” to South Africa for its hospitality and warmth over the years, says Kolkatta Knight Riders co-owner and Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan.

Fondly known as the Tom Cruise of Bollywood, Khan lands in Cape Town on Tuesday in time for the league at the weekend. His team has already been training in Bloemfontein for two weeks.

The Kolkatta Knight Riders, owned by Khan, Indian businessman Jai Mehta, and his Bollywood actress wife, Juhi Chawla, is one of the eight teams participating in the IPL this year. Khan, 43, has made several trips to Namibia and South Africa, visiting Joburg, Durban, Cape Town and, more recently, Sun City, but this trip will be special because it will be his first visit “with the kids”. He is expected to arrive with his wife, Gauri Khan, son Aryan and daughter Suhana.

The family would stay for a few weeks, mostly in Cape Town, he said.

He said he was really looking forward to the tournament.

“South Africans are such warm people, very welcoming, very open and friendly.”

He said the tournament was significant for his team because the whole team would be in town, unlike last year when some players did not take part.

“We’re hoping to see some of the wildlife and we’re really looking forward to meeting some of the people again… and drink some good South African wine,” he said.

He was expecting some competition, but the team were aiming to make the top six and hoping to secure a position in the top four teams of the tournament.

“But South Africans won’t need to worry – as an actor and as a film-maker I can assure you we will put on a good show.”

Despite his claim to fame as a Bollywood legend Khan has always had deep roots in sport, particularly cricket. He recalls a stint as a “good” wicketkeeper when he was 19.

Khan said he had been working on many projects, mostly to do with sport, because as a teenager he was involved in many sporting codes, including hockey and cricket, which took priority.

“Many youngsters never really had access to these sports. In our country you can’t really make a career of it. So I wanted to create something that my son could be involved in one day. When I was young playing cricket wasn’t really considered a profession, so I really wanted to create a platform for young people to develop their skills and talents. I look at it as a part of my social responsibility.”

Given that his name Shahrukh means “face of the king”, it is not surprising the star is currently the top actor in India, according to Internet critics.

Khan has won several awards for his outstanding performances in Darr, in 1993, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, in 1995, Dil To Pagal, in 1997 and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, in 1998. He owns three production houses in India, Red Chillies Entertainment and Idiot Box, and runs the Dreamz Unlimited production company with co-star Juhi Chawla and director Aziz Mirza.

So what about Slumdog Millionaire?

Khan, who turned down a role in the movie, said he personally wanted to make the movie.

“I’ve said it’s not an Indian film, it’s a foreign film, and how India is portrayed in the movie is not the point of the film. The film is not about the country. But it was very well done. I think it turned out far better than if I had done it.”
Source – iol.co.za

Kolkata Knight Riders owner Shah Rukh Khan is confident increased availability of international players will make the team more competitive in the second edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The franchise finished sixth in the inaugural IPL when they struggled to build momentum with various departures and arrivals of non-Indian players, whose participation was cut short by international commitments.

But while Australia captain Ricky Ponting has ruled himself out of this season’s glitz-and-glamour Twenty20 spectacular to rest, Khan believes the presence of other foreign stars will boost the Knight Riders.

“Internationally, I think the players will be more available, so we have the whole team to begin with,” he told a media conference at a five-star hotel soon after arriving in this south-west city.

“We’ll have Chris Gayle and Brendon McCullum, and then David Hussey will join us when Gayle has to leave. Brad Hodge is here, and so is Sourav Ganguly. Everyone has been practising over the past 10 days.

“We are working on amazing plans, including the captaincy issue, which has been a controversy over the past month. I think overall we are very well prepared.

“Unfortunately, we do have injuries but we’ll be there, one hundred percent trying to do much better than last year.”

English stars are competing in the Twenty20 league for the first time, but none will represent the Knight Riders, due in no small part to high price tags.

“We have gold and black as a uniform, but the gold is not real,” joked Khan. “We are a poor team and English players are very, very expensive.

“We would really like to have had them, but the auction rules and it’s down to how much money you have.”

Khan said the franchise was looking to appeal to a young fan base and encourage children to become more involved in sport, and admitted image was their main attraction.

“I don’t know about the cricket,” he said, “but we are the coolest-looking team.”
Source – google.com

Beverages major Coca-Cola India Tuesday announced a new communication initiative for its sparkling drink brand Sprite featuring Bollywood star and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) promoter Shahrukh Khan and cricket star Sourav Ganguly.
The campaign will be launched during the second season of the IPL Twenty20 cricket tournament in South Africa starting from April 18, Coca-Cola India said in a statement.
“As part of brand Sprite’s 360 degree communication plans, Shahrukh Khan, the Bollywood superstar and owner Kolkata Knight Riders, Saurav Ganguly, the captain of KKR and other members of the team, including Murali Karthik and Ajit Agarkar would feature in a new campaign to be aired during the IPL,” it said.
Sprite is an associate sponsor and the official ‘pouring partner’ of the KKR IPL franchise team.
The campaign would include mass media, besides leveraging out-of-home media through special location specific creatives.
In addition, Sprite and Nokia has launched a ‘Para´ (neighborhood) cricket series in Kolkata. Eleven players from contest would be taken to South Africa to cheer for KKR, it added.
Source – livemint.com