Mumbai Indians

Mumbai Indians is a cricket team in the Indian Premier League. The team is led by Sachin Tendulkar, who is also the Icon Player for the team. The team is coached by Pravin Amre and is owned by India's biggest conglomerate, Reliance Industries, through its 100% subsidiary IndiaWin Sports.

History
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) purchased the rights for the Mumbai franchise of Indian Premier league for a total of $111.9 million during the auction on January 24, 2008. The RIL bid has made the Mumbai Indians the most expensive franchise in IPL, and hence won the right to hold the semi-finals and the final in Mumbai. The team was unveiled on the 17th of April, 2008 in Mumbai.

[edit] 2008 IPL season
The season got off to a nightmarish start for the Indians, having lost their captain Sachin Tendulkar to a hamstring injury. With Harbhajan Singh taking over as captain, the team proceeded to lose their first 4 matches of the tournament. After Singh’s suspension for hitting Sreesanth, Shaun Pollock assumed the leadership duties until Tendulkar’s return on 14 May. It was during this time that the team turned their fortunes around, putting together a 6 game winning streak and an opportunity to make the semi-finals. They were unable to take advantage of this opportunity as they lost 3 of their next 4 games, with the 3 losses occurring in very close affairs. The Indians finished with a record of 7 wins and 7 losses. Sanath Jayasuriya played a vital role in securing two important wins for the team. Mumbai Indians were the most watched team on television in the first edition of the IPL tournament, totaling 239 million viewers. [1]

[edit] 2009 IPL season
During the IPL's first transfer window, The Indians acquired Zaheer Khan in exhange for Robin Uthappa and Shikhar Dhawan in exchange for Ashish Nehra. Jaydev Shah was also added to the roster, while Loots Bosman, Dwayne Smith, Dominic Thornely, Ashwell Prince and Manish Pandey were released from their contracts.
Shaun Pollock decided not to return for the second season of IPL. He, however, kept an association with the franchise, taking up the role of the Team Mentor. Pravin Amre replaced Lalchand Rajput as the coach. Thus far Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuria are an unstoppable opening pair.
At the player auction on February 6, 2009, the Mumbai Indians purchased J P Duminy for $950,000, Kyle Mills for $150,000 and Mohammad Ashraful for $75,000. They also signed all rounders Graham Napier and Ryan McLaren for undisclosed fee outside of the auction.

[edit] Logo and brand ambassador
The team logo has the Sudarshana Chakra with the team's name engraved in it. The team's colour is blue. The team's jersey is a two-tone blue with three stripes in orange.
In 2008, Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan was the brand ambassador of the team[2].

[edit] Players
During the player auction in 2008, the Mumbai Indians successfully bid for 7 players, including two members of the Indian Twenty-20 World cup winning side in Harbhajan Singh and Robin Uthappa. Sanath Jayasuriya, Lasith Malinga, Luke Ronchi,Dilhara Fernando and Shaun Pollock were other cricketers who were successfully bid for by the franchise.[3]
Outside of the player auction, the franchise also signed up Ajinkya Rahane and Abhishek Nayar (from Mumbai), Yogesh Takawale (WK-Batsman from Maharashtra) and Pinal Shah (WK-Batsman from Baroda).[4] Saurabh Tiwary and Manish Pandey, the members of the U-19 world-cup winning team were the random picks drafted in during the BCCI held second auction. Dominic Thornely was also signed by the Mumbai Indians for a sum of 25000 USD. Andre Nel the South African fast bowler was signed on in the place of Dwayne Bravo who left the tournament early.[5]
In the 2009 player auction,the Mumbai Indians signed up South African sensation, Jean Paul Duminy for $950,000.He was the third most expensive pick after Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff (both signed up for $1.55m by Bangalore Royal Challengers and Chennai Super Kings respectively). In addition they also bought New Zealander,Kyle Mills.

[edit] Transfers
In the 2008-2009 transfer window, Mumbai Indians conducted two straight swap deals, with no money exchanged. Ashish Nehra was swapped with Shikhar Dhawan of Delhi Daredevils[6] and on the last day of the transfer window, Robin Uthappa was swapped with Zaheer Khan of Royal Challengers Bangalore[7], who plays for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy. In a three-way trade, Jaydev Shah of the Rajasthan Royals - captain of the Saurashtra Ranji squad that made it to the semi-finals and son of former cricket board secretary Niranjan Shah - will move to the Mumbai Indians. Batsman Gaurav Dhiman of the Mumbai Indians will turn out for the Bangalore Royal Challengers and lanky Rajasthan Ranji Trophy team pacer Pankaj Singh, of the Rajasthan Royals, will don the colours of the Bangalore Royal Challengers in the coming IPL season.

[edit] Current squad
Mumbai Indians Roster
view • talk • edit
Batsmen
10 Sachin Tendulkar(Captain)
84 Shikhar Dhawan
-- Saurabh Tiwary
-- Ajinkya Rahane
-- Jaydev Shah
21 Jean-Paul Duminy
08 Mohammad Ashraful
Wicket Keepers
16 Pinal Shah
23 Yogesh Takawale
-- Luke Ronchi
All Rounders
47 Dwayne Bravo
01 Sanath Jayasuriya
14 Graham Napier
37 Kyle Mills
25 Abhishek Nayar
-- Jude Singh
27 Ryan McLaren
Bowlers
26 Dilhara Fernando
99 Lasith Malinga
03 Harbhajan Singh
30 Dhawal Kulkarni
33 Rohan Raje
34 Zaheer Khan
-- Chetanya Nanda
-- Rahil Sheikh
Coaches
Head Coach: Pravin Amre
Asst Coach: Sameer Dighe
Bowling Coach: Shaun Pollock
Fielding Coach: Jonty Rhodes
Physiotherapist: Nitin Patel
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Royal Challengers Bangalore

Royal Challengers Bangalore (also referred to as RCB) is an Indian Premier League team, based in the city of Bangalore. The team is owned by the liquor magnate Vijay Mallya, through his flagship firm UB Group.[3] Brijesh Patel is the CEO of the RCB and Kevin Pietersen is the captain. Rahul Dravid is the team's Icon Player, while Ray Jennings, the former South African coach, is the coach[4].

Franchise history
Indian Premier League is a cricket tournament being organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and backed by the International Cricket Council (ICC).[5] For the inaugural tournament held in Apr-Jun 2008, the BCCI had finalised a list of 8 teams who will be participating in the tournament. The teams representing 8 different cities of India, including Bangalore, were put up on auction in Mumbai on 20 February 2008 and the Bangalore team was won by Vijay Mallya, who paid US$111.6 million for it. This was the second highest bid for a team in the IPL, next only to Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries' bid of $111.9 million for the Mumbai team. Bollywood actresses Katrina Kaif and Deepika Padukone, and Sandalwood film stars Ramya and Upendra are the brand ambassadors of the team. [6]

[edit] 2008 IPL Season
The team won 4 matches in this season, losing 10 matches and managed to secure only the last but one position in the points table. Only one of their batsman, Rahul Dravid managed to score more than 300 runs in the tournament and they had to even bench their costliest foreign player, Jacques Kallis for few of the matches due to his poor form.[7][8] The string of failures mid-way through the season led to the sacking of the CEO, Charu Sharma who was replaced with Brijesh Patel.[9] Even coach Venkatesh Prasad was about to be sacked, but he saved his job by publicly apologising for the team's failure. Vijay Mallya went on to publicly criticise Dravid and Sharma for the failures by saying that they had not selected the right team. He regretted that he had made a mistake by not getting involved in the selection of the team.[9] They were the only team in the IPL to try out 11 opening combinations in 14 games. Eventually the chief cricketing officer, Martin Crowe resigned.[10]. From 2009 IPL session onwards the team will be coached by former South Africa Coach Ray Jennings and Venkatesh Prasad will assist him as team's Bowling Coach.

[edit] Etymology
Vijay Mallya wanted to associate one of his top-selling liquor brands, either No. 1 McDowell's or Royal Challenge with the team.[11] The latter was chosen, hence the name. The jersey colours of the team are red and golden yellow, the same as the Karnataka state flag [12], and the logo consists of the RC emblem with "Royal Challengers Bangalore" in standard format.

[edit] Theme Song
The original theme song of Royal Challengers is Jeetenge Hum Shaan Se sung by Kunal Ganjawala and Sunidhi Chowhan. However Another unofficial fanclub's theme song called Thakkath Geete has been composed in support of the Red & Yellow team, with the help of TV9.

[edit] Players

[edit] 1st IPL Auction
The players in the team (except for Rahul Dravid, who was the Icon Player), were selected in an auction conducted by BCCI on 20 February 2008. South Africa's Jacques Kallis at $900,000 became the costliest player to be selected to play for the Royal Challengers. This meant that Rahul Dravid, being the Icon Player would be paid $1,035,000 (15% more than the highest bid player in the team). Other players selected included the former Indian Test cricket captain Anil Kumble along with his team-mates Praveen Kumar and Zaheer Khan, West Indian Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Aussies Nathan Bracken and Cameron White, South Africa's Mark Boucher (Wicket Keeper) and Dale Steyn. The team also included Pakistan cricket team's vice captain Misbah-ul-Haq although he wasn't in the playing 11 for most part of the tournament.

[edit] Transfers & New Signings
On the last day of the 2008-2009 transfer window, Zaheer Khan was swapped with Robin Uthappa of Mumbai Indians, with no money exchanged. The team also acquired Karnataka batsman Gaurav Dhiman from Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan fast bowler Pankaj Singh from Rajasthan Royals.The team has signed Eagles fast bowler Dillon du Preez as a replacement for Zaheer Khan.

[edit] 2nd IPL Auction
Kevin Pietersen made his way into RCB as one of the costliest players in IPL history. Kevin Pietersen was valued at $1.55m over a base price of $1.35m. Also Jesse Ryder from New Zealand was acquired in the auction at $160,000.

[edit] Captaincy
Vijay Mallya, the owner of Bangalore Royal Challengers, has kept the captaincy options open. Minutes after picking up Kevin Pietersen at USD 1.55 million, Mallaya said he was happy with the price he got him at. "The captaincy options are open. The team management will take a decision on it." The Royal Challengers, who finished second last the previous year, were led by Rahul Dravid. On March 21, 2009 Vijay Mallya announced that Kevin Pietersen was replacing Rahul Dravid as the team captain for the 2009 season.The reason given was Dravid's absence in the league due to family related reasons.[13] However many suspect that the change in captaincy is the result of the poor performance of the team in the first season of the Indian Premier League.

[edit] Current squad
Royal Challengers Bangalore Roster
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Batsmen
24 Kevin Pietersen(Captain)
36 Ross Taylor
19 Wasim Jaffer
14 Rahul Dravid
28 Manish PandeyWandey
Wicket Keepers
10 Mark Boucher
17 Shreevats Goswami
37 Robin Uthappa
All Rounders
15 Dillon du Preez
22 Jacques Kallis
33 Jesse Ryder
40 Cameron White
24 Virat Kohli
25 Praveen Kumar
03 Balachandra Akhil
Bowlers
35 Dale Steyn
11 Nathan Bracken
29 Pankaj Singh
26 Anil Kumble
41 Tinu Yohannan
39 Vinay Kumar
Coaches
Head Coach: Ray Jennings
Assistant Head Coach: Vijay Bharadwaj
Physiotherapist: TBA
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Kings XI Punjab

Kings XI Punjab is a cricket franchise based in Mohali in the eight team Indian Premier League. The team is led by Yuvraj Singh who is also the Icon Player. The team is coached by Tom Moody, the former Australian all rounder

[edit] Franchise History
The owners of the franchise include Ness Wadia (Bombay Dyeing), Preity Zinta, Karan Paul (Apeejay Surendera Group) and Mohit Burman (Dabur). The group paid a total of $76 million to acquire the franchise.

[edit] 2008 IPL Season
The 2008 season started on a disatrous note for the Kings XI team as it lost its opening two matches, but then it recovered lost ground and went on to play the semi finals against Chennai Super Kings.

[edit] Performance
The tournament got off to a slow start for the Kings XI, with the team losing their first two games. However, despite losing Australians Brett Lee and Simon Katich (who were committed to tour the West Indies with Australia), the team found its groove. Powered by their balanced bowling lineup[1] and effective top order[2], the team won 9 of its next 10 matches, clinching a birth in the semi-final. In the semi-final, their run in the tournament came to an end with a comprehensive 9 wicket loss to the Chennai Super Kings.
Many credit the team for unearthing arguably the biggest find of the tournament in Shaun Marsh.[3][4] The opener from Western Australia was looked over in both IPL player auctions and was signed by the franchise on 9 April.[5] He finished the tournament the highest run scorer with an average of 68.44 and a strike rate of 139.68 in 11 innings. His innings included 1 century and 5 half-centuries.[6]

[edit] Racism Row
On top of their strong results, the franchise found itself in the headlines for issues off the field as well. It was alleged that cheerleaders Ellesha Newton and Sherinne Anderson—both of whom are of African lineage—were denied access to the PCA Stadium due to the colour of their skin. Wizcraft International Entertainment, the event management firm hired by the team, denied the allegation and began proceedings on a defmation lawsuit against the organization who represented the two individuals.[7]

[edit] Dispute with Punjab Police
The Punjab Police sought compensation in exchange for providing security during IPL matches at the PCA Stadium. The issue was that neither the Punjab Cricket Association, nor the franchise owners were willing to pay the amount being demanded.[8] The dispute reached a boiling point on 23 May during the Kings XI match against the Deccan Chargers, where it was alleged that team co-owner Ness Wadia was engaged in a verbal dispute with Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police, RS Khatra.[9] Khatra eventually filed an official complaint against Wadia, contending that he was accused of stealing alcohol and team merchandise, as well as granting entrance to unauthorized personnel in the stadium.[9] Following this event, the Punjab Police threatened to provide no security for the Kings XI's final home match, unless they were paid the sum they demanded.

[edit] Current Squad
Kings XI Punjab Roster
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Batsmen
04 Sunny Sohal
05 Karan Goel
14 Shaun Marsh
27 Mahela Jayawardene
37 Simon Katich
38 Luke Pomersbach
46 Taruwar Kohli
-- Tanmay Srivastava
-- Sahil Kukreja
-- Yash Gandhi
All Rounders
08 Piyush Chawla
12 Yuvraj Singh(Captain)
21 Wilkin Mota
32 Ramesh Powar
39 James Hopes
42 Ravinder Bopara
63 Irfan Pathan
75 Jerome Taylor
-- Ryan Ninan
Wicket Keepers
10 Uday Kaul
11 Kumar Sangakkara
Bowlers
07 Vikram Raj Vir Singh
29 Yusuf Abdulla[1]
36 Sreesanth
58 Brett Lee
83 Vikramjeet Malik
86 Burt Cockley
-- Ajitesh Argal
Coaches
Head Coach: Tom Moody
1st Assistant Head Coach: Trevor Penney
2nd Assistant Head Coach: Dave Nosworthy
Physiotherapist: Patrick Farhart
More rosters

Delhi Daredevils

Delhi Daredevils[1] is the Delhi franchise for the Indian Premier League. The franchise is owned by the GMR Group. The team is captained by Virender Sehwag, who is also the designated Icon Player for the franchise.

[edit] Franchise history
During the franchise auction for the Indian Premier League teams, the GMR group acquired the rights for the Delhi franchise for $84 million.

[edit] 2008 IPL Season

[edit] Performance
The Daredevils were well poised from the onset of the first IPL season, having most of their core players—with the exception of Daniel Vettori—available for the whole tournament. The team built their batting lineup around Delhi openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir and used the majority of their foreign player quota on their bowling attack lead by Glenn McGrath and Mohammed Asif.
The team started the tournament well, winning 4 of their first 5 games. However, they were unable to sustain this and finished the round-robin portion of the tournament with a record of 7-6. Their performance was good enough to make the semi-finals, where they lost by 105 runs against the Rajasthan Royals. Royals, who had lost to the Daredevils in their first encounter, went on to win the title.

[edit] Drug Scandal
On 14 July 2008, it was revealed by the IPL that Daredevils pace bowler Mohammad Asif tested positive for an unamed banned substance. As Asif had not applied for any therapeutic use exemption, the positive test was considered a breach of the IPL's drug policy. The case will be reviewed by the IPL's three-member drug tribunal of medical and legal experts.[2]

[edit] Home Ground
The Daredevils play their home matches in the Feroz Shah Kotla ground located in New Delhi, under the newly installed floodlights.

[edit] Brand Ambassador
Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar was the brand ambassador of the team during the 2008 Season but opted not to return for the 2009 season due to a busy schedule.

[edit] Players
Virender Sehwag has been accorded the icon player status in the Delhi team and is also the captain of the side. The team includes star players like AB de Villiers, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Paul Collingwood, David Warner, Andrew McDonald and Owais Shah. Bowling attack includes Glenn McGrath, Daniel Vettori, Farveez Maharoof and Dirk Nannes.
Team also includes young Indian promising players - Gautam Gambhir, Manoj Tiwary, Yo Mahesh and Amit Mishra.
IPL 2009 Additions:Mohammad Asif and Shoaib Malik go out.David Warner, Andrew McDonald are new signings.Ashish Nehra comes in from Mumbai Indians as a trade-off for Shikhar Dhawan.
IPL 2009 Auction Addition:Paul Collingwood USD 275,000Owais Shah USD 275,000

[edit] Current squad
Delhi Daredevils Roster
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Batsmen
44 Virender Sehwag(Captain)
17 AB de Villiers
03 Owais Shah
05 Gautam Gambhir
09 Manoj Tiwary
31 David Warner
-- Tejashwi Yadav
All Rounders
04 Andrew McDonald
05 Paul Collingwood
23 Rajat Bhatia
28 Farveez Maharoof
55 Tillakaratne Dilshan
-- Yogesh Nagar
Wicket Keepers
17 AB de Villiers
46 Dinesh Karthik
-- Mithun Manhas
Bowlers
11 Glenn McGrath
15 Daniel Vettori
21 Vijaykumar Yo Mahesh
64 Ashish Nehra
99 Amit Mishra
26 Dirk Nannes
18 Pradeep Sangwan
20 Aavishkar Salvi
-- Umesh Yadav
Coaches
Head Coach: Greg Shipperd
Assistant Head Coach: David Saker
Bowling Consultant: Dennis Lillee
Physiotherapist: Justin Steer
Selector : Adhishwar
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Deccan Chargers

Deccan Chargers is the franchise that represents the city of Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League[1]. From 2009, the team will be led by Adam Gilchrist and coached by Darren Lehmann, both former Australian Test cricketers. There is no Icon Player for the team, although V.V.S. Laxman rejected the offer to be an icon player in order to free funds to purchase more stars for the team.

[edit] Franchise History
The Deccan Chargers franchise is owned by Deccan Chronicle. The media group acquired the franchise from IPL for $107 million on January 24, 2008. It is announced that from 2009 season onwards the team will change its jersey(from beige-black to sparkling silver-blue), logo and also the team will have much more hype in it.[2]

[edit] 2008 IPL Season
Despite the fact that the team was one of the favourites to win the inauguaral edition of the IPL, the team failed to reach the semi-finals. In addition, Andrew Symonds (Deccan's most expensive player) batted only 3 innings before leaving to play for the Australian national team, and team captain Laxman had his season ended by an injury after 6 games. Only 3 Deccan bowlers, R. P. Singh, Pragyan Ojha and Shahid Afridi, took more than 4 wickets in the competition. In this 14 match period, the team went winless at home and only managed 2 wins overall, one against the Mumbai Indians and one against the Chennai Super Kings. They finished at the bottom of the table.

[edit] Players
The franchise acquired players like Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Shahid Afridi, Scott Styris and Herschelle Gibbs. The main bowlers acquired by the franchise were R.P. Singh, Nuwan Zoysa and Chaminda Vaas. From 2009, the team will be captained by Adam Gilchrist who replaced the captain of the inaugural season, V.V.S. Laxman. In 2008, VVS Laxman was intended to be the Icon Player for the team but he relinquished his Icon Player Status and settled for a signing amount of $375,000, which allowed the team to bid for costly players and still remain under the salary cap.
A huge controversy has risen amidst the Deccan Chargers camp, as their ace player VVS Laxman has reportedly decided not to play for the team again. Laxman, a senior Indian batsman, is upset by the way the owners have overlooked his contributions and sacrifices and named Adam Gilchrist as the captain for the next season, without even informing him before-hand. People realized something was wrong when another star player Shahid Afridi accused VVS Laxman of his below-par performance and inability to lead on the field in the inaugural season. A temporary truce was resorted to, but the flames have reappeared soon. Later they have terminated the contract of Shahid Afridi and after team management have snapped their ties with him.

[edit] 2009 Season

[edit] New Administration And Support Staff
After the debacle of 2008, the team management have sacked the entire previous administration(their CEO, Managers), the Captain and the entire Coaching Staff except assistant coach Kanwaljit Singh. They have sacked their CEO J.Kalyankrishnan after one week of the 2008 Season, Coach Robin Singh and later Captain V.V.S.Laxman and replaced them with Tim Wright(later he too resigned after violating Foreigners Act), the former Australian batsman Darren Lehmann and former Australia Wicket-Keeper Adam Gilchrist respectively.

[edit] Trading
In a low key trading of players, the Deccan Chargers management had placed Shahid Afridi and Herschelle Gibbs up for sale, a direct result of their below par performance during the 2008 season, however no Franchise owners were interested in acquiring these two players. Due to this the Deccan Chargers management have ceased all ties with Shahid Afridi, due to a disagreement with former Deccan Chargers captain V.V.S.Laxman. They have also released former India all-rounder Sanjay Bangar.

[edit] New-Signings
Before the second player auction took place the management signed Queensland all-rounder Ryan Harris owing to a strong recommendation from Coach Darren Lehmann.
In the resulting auction the Deccan Chargers franchise acquired two West Indian players, Fidel Edwards for a fee of $150,000, and Dwayne Smith for $100,000
They have also signed up six new domestic players, T.Suman and Abhinav Kumar are two batsmen, bowler S.M.Shoaib from the Hyderabad team signed after their consistent performances on the domestic circuit, M.S.Bisla, a Wicket-Keeper from Himachal Pradesh and two fast bowlers from Punjab, Jaskarandeep Singh and H.S. Bansal.Some have stated that the Chargers' spinner Pragyan Ojha will be their major asset because of his recent performance in all forms of the game.

[edit] CEO Resignation
Chargers new CEO Tim Wright have resigned, after alleged to have committed serious violations of Foreigners Registration Act and this made to resign as CEO of Deccan Chargers. Later team Vice-President Venkat Reddy said that team will not have CEO for 2009 season.

Etymology
The Deccan Chargers are represented by a charging bull, the mascot for the chargers which signifies strength, power and aggression .[3]

[edit] Current Squad
Deccan Chargers Roster
view • talk • edit
Batsmen
05 Chamara Silva
08 Herschelle Gibbs
19 V.V.S.Laxman
26 Arjun Yadav
36 Venugopal Rao
45 Rohit Sharma(Vice-Captain)
59 D.B.Ravi Teja
-- T.Suman
-- Abhinav Kumar
-- Azhar Bilakhia
All Rounders
12 Harmeet Singh
50 Dwayne Smith
56 Scott Styris
63 Andrew Symonds
-- Ryan Harris
Wicket Keepers
18 Adam Gilchrist(Captain)
11 Halhadar Das
-- M.S.Bisla
Bowlers
09 R. P. Singh
20 Fidel Edwards
22 Chaminda Vaas
23 Nuwan Zoysa
27 D.Kalyankrishna
30 Pragyan Ojha
-- M Sarveesh Kumar
-- Jaskarandeep Singh
-- P. Vijay Kumar
-- S.M.Shoaib
Support Staff
Head Coach: Darren Lehmann
Assistant Coaches: Kanwaljit Singh
Assistant Coaches: Mike Young
Physiotherapist: Dr Sean Slattery
Strength and Conditioning Coach: Steve Smith
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Kolkata Knight Riders

Kolkata Knight Riders (also referred to as KKR) is the franchise representing Kolkata in the Indian Premier League, a Twenty20 cricket tournament. The team is led by Brendon McCullum, and coached by John Buchanan. Sourav Ganguly is the team's Icon Player. The official theme of the team is Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo Re (We will do it, Fight for it, Win it) and the official colors are black and gold.

Franchise History
Knight Riders is one of the franchise of the eight team taking part in the Indian Premier League. It was bought by Bollywood actor ShahRukh Khan's Red Chillies Entertainment in partnership with Juhi Chawla Mehta and her husband, Jai Mehta.
[edit] Performance
The Knight Riders had a good beginning to the season by winning their first two matches against Royal Challengers Bangalore and Deccan Chargers. Knight Riders' opening batsman Brendon McCullum scored 158 runs in the first match, which is a record for the highest runs ever scored by a batsman in a Twenty-20 match.[1] However, the team started experiencing failures and lost consecutive four matches. The team managed to stage a comeback of sorts by winning next three matches based on strong performances by Sourav and Shoaib Akhtar. But their performance dipped again and lost next three matches, which included their match against Mumbai Indians, in which they were bowled out for 67 runs, the lowest score by a team in IPL 2008 season.[2] When their match against Delhi Daredevils was washed out due to rain, they lost any chance of making it to the semifinals.[3]. The Knight Riders ended their season on a winning note by defeating Kings XI Punjab on their home ground.

[edit] Controversy
There were reports of a rift between Shahrukh Khan and Sourav Ganguly over various issues such as team composition, Sourav's choice of batting first in the game against Chennai Super Kings, entertainment tax being imposed for matches played at Eden Gardens (Shahrukh reportedly wanted Sourav to speak to the West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya about it, which was refused by Sourav).[4] It was also reported that Shahrukh Khan bestowed more powers to John Buchanan including giving him full powers to select the team for the following year which was not liked by Sourav.[4] However, the team management issued a statement that the reports of a possible rift are untrue.[5]
Shahrukh Khan was further barred by the International Cricket Council Anti-Corruption Unit from entering the dressing room of the team when matches were in progress. Shahrukh Khan then issued a statement that he would be boycotting the remaining matches of the IPL till the code of conduct was clarified by the IPL authorities.[6].
There were also speculations that Kolkata Knight Riders will shift its base from Kolkata to Ahmedabad because of the money demanded by the C.A.B. But after a meeting with Jagmohan Dalmiya, Shah Rukh Khan assured everyone that his team will stay in Kolkata only.

[edit] Financial
Financially, the Knight Riders were easily the most successful franchise in the IPL, achieving a profit of Rs. 13 crore. [7]

[edit] 2009 IPL Season

[edit] Players
Kolkata Knight Riders was among the least active franchises during the offseason, with no player trades. However, the team signed Mohnish Parmar during the offseason and also resigned Ajantha Mendis to a long term deal. The most notable personnel move for Knight Riders came during the 2009 IPL Auction, where the team signed Bangladesh all-rounder Mashrafe Mortaza.

[edit] Cheer Leaders
KKR would be the first team in IPL who will be finding its cheer leaders by a talent hunt show called knights and angels, judged by Sourav Ganguly and Guest Star and hosted by Bollywood actor Purab Kohli.

[edit] Livery
The logo of the team consists of a blazing golden Viking helmet against a black background with the name of the team Kolkata Knight Riders written in gold. The main theme of the team Korbo, Lorbo, Jitbo Re (We will do it, Fight for it, Win it) has been created by Vishal-Shekhar duo.[8] A Knight Rider album with several singers and music composers including Usha Uthup and Bappi Lahiri will also be created.[9] The tag line of the team is All the King's Men.[8] The team's official colours are black and gold. Black stands for the courage of Maa Kali and gold stands for the spirit of winning.[9] The jersey was created by Bollywood fashion designer Manish Malhotra.[8] The team also has a mascot named Hoog Lee, who is a lazy Royal Bengal Tiger and loves to eat burgers. The name is a pun on the river Hooghly. The name Knight Riders has been chosen keeping in view the kids and the youth.[8]

[edit] Controversy: Ganguly and the Fake IPL Blogger
The rift between Saurav Ganguly and Shahrukh Khan has taken a new turn as Saurav Ganguly was removed from the captaincy in the 11th hour and replaced by Brendon McCullum. Rumors are that John Buchanan wanted Ganguly out. First, he floated a series of theories discussing “multiple-captains” before completely undermining Ganguly’s captaincy. Soon thereafter, a blog has popped up on the web. The writing of a mystery blogger, who claims to be a member of the team and seems determined to out every team secret, warts and all. The posts describe what the blogger claims are team meetings, arguments between coach and team members, post-match parties and pre-match strategy. [10]

[edit] Kolkata dropped from Kolkata Knight Riders merchandise
The Knight Riders merchandise have dropped 'Kolkata' from its merchandise fuelling controversy that the team base may be shifted to Ahmedabad next year. http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/kolkata-droppedkolkata-knight-riders/355870/

[edit] Players
Callum Ferguson was recently added to squad. He is expected to join team after Chapal Series against Pakistan. Sourav Ganguly, the former captain of the Indian cricket team is the icon player and led the Kolkata franchise. The team also includes the allrounder Chris Gayle, David Hussey, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Moises Henriques, wicket keeper batsman Brendon McCullum, Wriddhiman Saha. The main bowlers are Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda, Ajit Agarkar and Murali Karthik.Australian Skipper Ricky Ponting who played only a few matches in 2008 season before returning to National duties, has pulled off from IPL2 due to personal reasons. Australian batsman Brad Hodge and Sri Lankan bowler Ajantha Mendis were bought outside IPL Auction on 2008. On IPL Auction 2009 Team bought Bangladeshi All-Rounder Mashrafe Mortaza.Team also includes Charl Langeveldt who was signed outside of Auction.Due to Pakistani players unavailability in 2009 Team has to suspend contract of key performer of 2008 season Umar Gul.[11][12].Middle order Batsman Cheteshwar Pujara has been ruled out of the IPL Season 2 due to knee injury which he got during practice session in training camp at South Africa.Wicket Keeper Wriddhiman Saha was also injured in the same camp but he will be available selection after 3 games.On April 26, 2009, KKR administration sent back two of its players Akash Chopra and Sanjay Bhangar on the premises of poor performance. But there is high media speculation that one or both of them have been caught or strongly suspected of being the "fake IPL player" responsible for the blog which has been creating ripples with inside information on KKR team.
Kolkata Knight Riders Roster
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Batsmen
17 Brad Hodge
11 Aakash Chopra
22 Debabrata Das
Wicket Keepers
42 Brendon McCullum(Captain)
76 Morne van Wyk
06 Wriddhiman Saha
Bowlers
29 Ishant Sharma
40 Ajantha Mendis
02 Ashok Dinda
25 Murali Kartik
68 Ajit Agarkar
67 Charl Langeveldt
-- Mohnish Parmar
All Rounders
45 Chris Gayle
08 David Hussey
40 Mashrafe Bin Mortaza
01 Sourav Ganguly
07 Laxmi Ratan Shukla
21 Moises Henriques
69 Angelo Mathews
-- Iqbal Abdullah
-- Sachin Rana
Coaches
Head Coach: John Buchanan (cricketer)
Assistant Head Coach: Matthew Mott
Bowling Coach: Andrew Bichel
Physiotherapist: Andrew Leipus
Physical Trainer: Adrian Le Roux
Physical Trainer: Michael Buchanan
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