Kolkata Knight Riders embarked upon a journey that is quite simple, intangible and surreal. Created and envisioned by “Bollywood Badshah“ Shahrukh Khan along with Jay Mehta and Juhi Chawla they started out as a “People’s Team” in the first IPL. This team is led by icon player Sourav Ganguly and it was Dav Whatmore who powered the think-tank. As per the study done by leading brand valuation companies, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) is ranked the most valuable franchise brand at US$42.1million. Celebrity Shahrukh Khan’s hard-selling of the KKR brand has counteracted the team’s poor performance. The team has a strong batting line-up with Sourav Ganguly, Chris Gayle, Brad Hodge, Brendon McCullum and Owais Shah and its bowling attack comprising of Ishant Sharma, recently bought Shane Bond, Ajit Agarkar and Charl Langeveldt. The team bought out Ricky Ponting and Morne Van Wyk ahead of the 2010 season.
Performance in IPL 2009:
IPL 2009 has been a nightmare for the team as it stood at the bottom of the table despite the availability of Chris Gayle for the first half of the season and a new captain Brendon McCullum. The team had been in disputes with Coach John Buchanan floated a series of theories supporting multiple-captains. This had been criticized by many former cricketers and they finally opted for Brendon McCullum as their captain.
More controversy arose when there were accusations of a racial rift between KKR coaches and players. Apart from these controversies the team’s performance is not convincible as they lost many close matches. The players didn’t stand firm when the team was in critical situations. The captaincy by McCullum was not impressive as he failed to bring the international players and the local players as a team.
The team won only 3 matches out of 14 by the end of the season for which it stood at the bottom of the table. It didn’t surprise cricket fans as the team won only one match in their first 12 matches. The Indian players in the team failed in making their impact on the game which showed a serious effect on team’s performance.
People under the spotlight:
Brad Hodge: This Australian batsman had been the leading scorer for the team with an average slightly above 40 and worked well as a part-time bowler.
John Buchanan: The coach of the team for second season had been in the news for his theories about multiple captains. It was also said that the coached used to show racial discrimination against Indians.
New Players in the team for IPL 2010:
Shane Bond: The team bought this New Zealand pacer for 750,000$ in the IPL 2010 auction.
Harpreet Singh: The under 19 batsman was chosen by the team.
Pros of the team:
The presence of Dada as captain will boost the team’s morale.
The availability of Chris Gayle for the entire season will help the knight riders.
Cons of the team:
Lack of consistent bowlers is a huge drawback for the team.
The poor performance by the Indian players of this side needs to be assessed by the captain.
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