Shah Rukh Khan: KKR cricketing brains behind Ganguly ouster

Kolkata Knight Riders' co-owner Shah Rukh Khan today said leaving out former India captain Sourav Ganguly from the team was a decision taken by the "cricketing brains" of the franchise and not by him.

Ganguly, who captained KKR in the inaugural and 2009 season, was completely ignored in two rounds of players' auction for the fourth edition starting April 8. The snub to the flamboyant batsman triggered angry protests in Kolkata. Khan pleaded with the fans to understand the compulsions behind the decision.

"It's with very heavy heart that such decisions are taken. I don't do cricketing decisions anymore because in the first year when I did it, I have not done very well," Khan said.

"I feel very sad for my team, for the city that my team represents. I feel very sad for the state. I feel very bad for my children. So all the decisions are now taken by the cricketing brains. The main aim is to perform well since in the last three years we have performed badly and I am sure that Dada also wishes that we do well," he added.

Khan said the team, which has bought Gautam Gambhir for mind boggling Rs 11 crore, cannot be about one individual.

"Dada is like my younger brother. The team does not consist of one or two people. It is a team of 20. We used to feel very bad about our loss. We have even cried when we didn't win in India as well as in South Africa.

"We only want to win the championship for Kolkata. We all want to do that including Dada. We have to put sadness, issues and thoughts behind sometimes to achieve a goal. We all have to make some sacrifices we understand that," he told 'Times Now'.

Khan said the controversies should now end and KKR should be allowed to function smoothly.

"In season one, we had a lot of controversies and in the third IPL season, we had so many problems so my message to everyone is to give me a chance to run KKR without controversies. Let me play the game with the spirit of the game," he said.

IPL Auction Day 2 - Who got whom

Check out the IPL auction on day 2.......

Day 2: Who got whom
Player	Country	Purchased By	Base Price	Bidding Price	Role
Daniel Christian	Australia	DC	$50,000	$900,000	All-rounder
Umesh Yadav	India	DD	$50,000	$750,000	Bowler
Venugopal Rao	India	DD	$100,000	$700,000	Batsman
Munaf Patel	India	MI	$100,000	$700,000	Bowler
Laxmipathy Balaji	India	KKR	$100,000	$500,000	Bowler
Vinay Kumar	India	Kochi	$100,000	$475,000	Bowler
Murali Kartik	India	Pune	$200,000	$400,000	Bowler
Ashok Dinda	India	DD	$100,000	$375,000	Bowler
Shaun Tait	Australia	RR	$300,000	$300,000	Bowler
Mitchell Marsh	Australia	Pune	$100,000	$290,000	All-rounder
Manpreet Gony	India	DC	$50,000	$290,000	Bowler
Abhimanyu Mithun	India	RCB	$100,000	$260,000	Bowler
Jaidev Unadkat	India	KKR	$50,000	$250,000	Bowler
Sudeep Tyagi	India	CSK	$50,000	$240,000	Bowler
Ajit Agarkar	India	DD	$100,000	$210,000	Bowler
Owais Shah	England	Kochi	$200,000	$200,000	Batsman
Scott Styris	New Zealand	CSK	$100,000	$200,000	All-rounder
Wayne Parnell	South Africa	Pune	$100,000	$160,000	Bowler
Jesse Ryder	New Zealand	Pune	$100,000	$150,000	Batsman
Ryan ten Doeschate	Netherlands	KKR	$50,000	$150,000	All-rounder
Joginder Sharma	India	CSK	$100,000	$150,000	Bowler
Charl Langeveldt	South Africa	RCB	$100,000	$140,000	Bowler
Mohd Kaif	India	RCB	$100,000	$130,000	Batsman
Faf du Plessis	South Africa	CSK	$20,000	$120,000	Batsman
Clint McKay	Australia	MI	$100,000	$110,000	Bowler
Matthew Wade	Australia	DD	$100,000	$100,000	Wicket-keeper
Colin Ingram	South Africa	DD	$100,000	$100,000	Batsman
Dimitri Mascarenhas	England	Kings XI	$100,000	$100,000	All-rounder
James Pattinson	Australia	KKR	$100,000	$100,000	Bowler
Alfonso Thomas	South Africa	Pune	$50,000	$100,000	Bowler
Jerome Taylor	West Indies	Pune	$100,000	$100,000	Bowler
Nuwan Kulasekara	Sri Lanka	CSK	$100,000	$100,000	Bowler
Ben Hilfenhaus	Australia	CSK	$100,000	$100,000	Bowler
Pankaj Singh	India	RR	$50,000	$95,000	Bowler
Juan Theron	South Africa	DC	$50,000	$85,000	Bowler
Michael Lumb	England	DC	$50,000	$80,000	Batsman
Andrew McDonald	Australia	DD	$50,000	$80,000	All-rounder
Suraj Randiv	Sri Lanka	CSK	$50,000	$80,000	Bowler
T Perera	Sri Lanka	Kochi	$50,000	$80,000	All-rounder
Michael Klinger	Australia	Kochi	$20,000	$75,000	Batsman
Moises Henriques	Australia	MI	$50,000	$50,000	All-rounder
George Bailey	Australia	CSK	$50,000	$50,000	Batsman
Johan van der Wath	South Africa	RCB	$50,000	$50,000	Bowler
Luke Pomersbech	Australia	RCB	$20,000	$50,000	Batsman
Robert Frylinck	South Africa	DD	$20,000	$20,000	Bowler
Aiden Blizzard	Australia	MI	$20,000	$20,000	Batsman
Nathan Rimmington	Australia	Kings XI	$20,000	$20,000	Batsman
Jonathan Vandiar	South Africa	RCB	$20,000	$20,000	Batsman
Travis Birt	Australia	DD	$20,000	$20,000	Batsman
Chris Lynn	Australia	DC	$20,000	$20,000	Batsman
Nuwan Pradeep	Sri Lanka	RCB	$20,000	$20,000	Bowler
Rilee Rossouw	South Africa	RCB	$20,000	$20,000	Batsman
John Hastings	Australia	Kochi	$20,000	$20,000	All-rounder
O’ Keefe	Australia	Kochi	$20,000	$20,000	Bowler
Some big unsold players who were not able to find any takersin the IPL auction on Day 2
Jacob Oram			$200,000	Unsold	All-rounder
Ravi Bopora			$200,000	Unsold	Batsman
Sanath Jayasuriya			$200,000	Unsold	All-rounder

KKR cannot afford to drop Ganguly

When reports about the IPL Kolkata Knight Riders deciding against retaining skipper Sourav Ganguly for the fourth edition of the Indian Premier League first surfaced, the initial reaction was that of disbelief.It was impossible to imagine a 'home' team taking the field at the Eden Gardens without the 'Prince of Kolkata' being a part of it. KKR, fans said, will lose its following and the so-called off-field success of the team will be dented like never before.

Agreed that the Knights have not touched the heights of glory in the last three seasons, but to blame the skipper for that is not just being unjust, but even being foolhardy. A closer look, however, at the decision to put Ganguly back in the players pool looks like a stroke of genius from the Kolkata team management.If they had decided to retain Ganguly, the franchise would have had to pay him Rs 1.84 crore. Instead, they can now buy him afresh for a much lower price as Ganguly has been put in Grade C by the BCCI that fixes his base price at Rs 92 lakh.Ganguly's performance in the IPL has been pretty decent, both with the bat and the ball. The team though hasn't clicked together as a unit and it is more to do with the team selection and availability of the players than just big names.And with the initial three-year contract for the players out of the way, this is the best time to overhaul the team while keeping the costs low.The only other team that may seriously consider giving Kolkata a challenge while bidding for Ganguly is the Sahara Pune Warriors.The former Indian skipper relishes a challenge and still has the ability to turn it around everytime a question mark is put against his name.Also, Sahara may want to cash in on the charisma of Ganguly, who has even started getting crucial match fitness by playing for Bengal in the Ranji Trophy.

Geoff Lawson is the coach of Kochi team in ipl 2011

The former Australian fast bowler and ex-Pakistan team coach Geoff Lawson has already been named as the coach the new Kochi IPL franchise in the T20 League's 2011 edition.

The Kochi IPL franchise has already informed the Cricket Board (which owns IPL) that Lawson will be the coach. The details of his contract are being worked out.IPL Governing Council has decided that Kochi and the other new IPL franchise Sahara Pune Warriors, who did not take part in the 2010 season, can sign up to four players from the list of players who were not a part of the squad of any of the teams in the past three IPL editions.The franchise and players must mutually agree to the fees to be paid by the franchise to the player for the 2011 and 2012 seasons.Irrespective of the actual fee to be paid to the players, the salary cap of $9 million for the franchises would get reduced by $1.8m per annum for the first player, a further $1.3m for the second, $0.9m for the third and $0.5m for the fourth.If the franchise signs four players, its salary cap will be halved in each of 2011 and 2012 and it will have only $4.5m remaining to pay as player fees for the remainder of its registered squad.

kings xi won for the second time against BCCI

Ipl frenchisee owener Kings XI Punjab won for the second time against the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) in less than a week for the Bombay high court ruled in their favour granting them permission to participate in the Indian Premier League.

The appeal bench of the high court favoured the Mohali IPL franchisee owned by Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia, Karan Paul and Mohit Burman. The bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Anoop Mohta paved way over the Board’s appealagainst the stay over the termination of the Kings XI franchisee agreement granted by a single judge. he bench declared the BCCI step as “wholly arbitrary” and further reclaimed the termination notice as “anything but fair”. The BCCI
, on the other hand, seems split over the decision of appealing with the apex court of the country, the Supreme Court.

The judges declared that “it was abundantly clear that there was no basis for the notice” given to Kings XI Punjab by the BCCI on 10 October, 2010 blaming the franchisee for committing the “irremedial breach” of contract by altering the company, shareholding pattern and charge after they had won the bid and signed the agreement.

Ipl frenchisee owener Kings XI had questioned the termination notice and appointed an arbitrator for challenging the notice. Thereafter, retired Judge B. N. Srikrishna was agreed upon as the sole arbitrator acting for both the Kings XI and the BCCI. But he was later rescued due to certain objections by the board.

No decision has taken on the format of ipl 2011

The IPL Governing Council has not taken a decision on the format of the 2011 tournament, instead devoting its meeting in Mumbai on Friday to examine the league's accounts for 2009-10. It was widely expected that the governing council would consider proposals to shorten next year's tournament from the current 94 games but that seems to have been left for a future meeting.

"Nothing else other than IPL accounts was discussed meeting," IPL vice-chairman Niranjan Shah told PTI. "There will be another meeting in the first week of September." Shah added that no proposal concerning the number of matches was put forward at the meeting.

The 2009 tournament is understood to have resulted in a deficit of Rs 40 crore for the BCCI, but only after the board distributed Rs 202 crore between 25 state associations, with each association getting at least Rs 6 crore. The deficit was reportedly due to the increase in expenses that resulted from moving the event to South Africa.
The rules and regulations for the 2011 tournament have been up in the air since the suspension of IPL chairman Lalit Modi. The league added two new teams for next year, increasing the total number of matches to be played on a home and away basis from 60 to 94. A longer tournament became a contentious issue after India's poor performance in the World Twenty20 this year, with some suggesting their exit from the tournament was a consequence of a hectic IPL schedule.

Pak players should be picked for IPL 4

Nationality of cricketers should not matter in the IPL and franchises should be allowed to pick best players from around the globe, feels KKR CEO Joy Bhattacharya, who recently signed an MOU with rookie Pakistan pacer Muhammad Irfan.

"It shouldn't matter which country they belong to. But we want to be in a position where we can sign on the best available players," Bhattacharya told the Geo Super channel last night.

Kolkata Knight Riders recently entered into an MOU with Irfan who is yet to play for Pakistan after watching him bowl in a couple of practice matches in Sri Lanka.

Irfan was invited to play in Sri Lanka by the KKR management on the recommendation of former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram, who is on the coaching staff of the team.

The KKR CEO, however, said that although the franchise had entered into an agreement with Irfan but his participation in the fourth edition of the IPL was totally dependent on the official rules and regulations of the league.

"We have signed an MOU with Irfan but so far the IPL franchises have not been told about any policy regarding participation of Pakistani players in the IPL," he said.

Sources in the Pakistan Cricket Board felt that there were bright chances of Pakistani players finally playing again in the IPL next year because of some significant changes in the management of the IPL.

"For one Lalit Modi is no longer on the IPL management board and he played an instrumental role in including our players names for the players auction this year and then influencing the franchises to ignore them completely," a source said.

"With Modi no longer in power and a new set up running IPL affairs directly under the control of the Indian board we are pretty confident this time our players will get a chance to play in the IPL. Our government is also now more responsive to sporting ties with India," another source stated.

Number of Pakistani players took part in the IPL first season but didn't feature in the next two editions because of strained political and diplomatic ties between the two countries.

No Pakistani team or player is also part of the Champions League being held in South Africa from next month.

The same situation prevailed in the league when it was launched last year in India although Sialkot Stallions led by former Pakistan captain, Shoaib Malik have twice won the right to represent the country in the league by virtue of being the national T20 champions.