Kolkata Knight Riders

In the Indian Premier League the franchise representing Kolkata which is owned by Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla and Jai Mehta is called as Kolkata Knight Riders or KKR. The home ground of this team is the Eden Gardens and the CEO is Joy Bhattacharya. “Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo Re” is the official theme of this team which means “We will do it, Fight for it, Win it.”

During the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League in 2008 (April-May), the KKR won the following matches. On 18th April 2008 at Bangalore it defeated the Royal Challengers Bangalore by 140 runs. On 20th April 2008 at Kolkata it defeated Deccan Chargers by 5 wickets. On 8th May 2008 at Kolkata it defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by 5 runs. On 11th May 2008 at Hyderabad it defeated Deccan Chargers by 23 runs. On 13th May 2008 at Kolkata it defeated Delhi Daredevils by 23 runs. On 25th May 2008 at Kolkata it defeated Kings XI Punjab by 3 wickets.

Some of the prominent players in this team are as follows. The captain-batsman is Sourav Ganguly of India who was paid 1.092 million USD. The wicket keepers are Tatenda Taibu of Zimbabwe for 0.125 million USD, Wriddhiman Prashanta Saha of India for 0.0625 million USD and Brendon McCullum of New Zealand for 0.7 million USD. The all rounders in the team are Chris Gayle of West Indies for 0.8 million USD, Ajit Agarkar of India for 0.35 million USD and Mohammad Hafeez of Pakistan for 0.1 million USD. The batsmen in this team are David Hussey of Australia for 0.625 million, Ricky Ponting of Australia for 0.4 million USD and Salman Butt of Pakistan for 0.1 million USD. The bowlers in the team are Ishant Sharma of India for 0.95 million USD, Shoiab Akhtar of Pakistan for 0.45 million USD, Murali Kartik of India for 0.425 million USD and Umar Gul of Pakistan for 0.15 million USD.

Major achievements

In the 2008 inaugural season of the Indian Premier League the KKR participated in 14 matches against the other IPL Teams and won 6 of them.