Kolkata Knight Riders
The Kolkata Knight Riders are a franchise cricket team representing the city of Kolkata in the Indian Premier League. The franchise is owned by Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, actress Juhi Chawla and her spouse Jay Mehta. The home of the Knight Riders is the iconic Eden Gardens stadium.
The franchise, which has gained immense popularity due to its association with celebrity owners, qualified for the IPL playoffs for the first time in 2011. They became the IPL champions in 2012, by defeating Chennai Super Kings in the final. They repeated the feat in 2014, defeating Kings XI Punjab. The Knight Riders hold the record for the longest winning streak by any Indian team in T20s.
The leading run-scorer of the side is Gautam Gambhir, while the leading wicket-taker is Sunil Narine. The official theme of the team is Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo Re and the official colours are purple and gold. The brand value of the Knight Riders was estimated at $104 million in 2018, third highest among IPL franchises.
Franchise history
In 2007, the Board of Control for Cricket in India created the cricket tournament Indian Premier League based on the Twenty20 form of the game. Eight teams would participate in the inaugural tournament held in April – June of the same year. The teams representing the eight different cities of India were put up on auction in Mumbai on 20 February. The team representing Kolkata was eventually bought by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's company Red Chillies Entertainment in partnership with actress Juhi Chawla and her husband Jay Mehta for a price of $75.09 million, equal to approximately ₹2.98 billion at that time. Sourav Ganguly, former captain of the Indian national team and a native of West Bengal, was named the Icon player for the team. The name of the team is a reference to the popular 1980s American television series Knight Rider.In June 2015, they bought a stake in the Caribbean Premier League cricket team Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel and later in 2016, renamed it Trinbago Knight Riders.
Livery
Initially, when Kolkata Knight Riders were first introduced in 2008, the logo of the team consisted of a blazing golden Viking helmet against a black background with the name of the team written in gold next to it. However, the black background was changed to purple in the third season. It was in 2012 that the current logo, which has a blazing purple Corinthian helmet trimmed with gold, with Kolkata Knight Riders written within a shield was introduced.The tagline of the team was "All the King's Men" during the first four seasons. However, in the fifth it was replaced by "New Dawn, New Knights". The team's official colours were black and gold during the first two seasons. At the time, Khan said that "golden symbolizes spirit of life and black presents the Goddess Kali." It was later changed to purple and gold during the third season and was kept so. The jersey was created by Bollywood fashion designer Manish Malhotra.
The main theme of the team Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo Re was scored by Vishal-Shekhar duo. A Knight Riders album featuring several singers and music composers including Usha Uthup and Bappi Lahiri was also created.
Rivalries
The Knight Riders have historically been a successful franchise in the IPL. This success has led to them having many rivalries among other teams.Mumbai Indians
Both teams play in major markets as the Indians play in Mumbai and the Knight Riders play in Kolkata. The Mumbai Indians is the most successful IPL franchise with four championships but until Mumbai's third championship, both teams were tied with two championships. In the first two seasons of the IPL, Mumbai swept Kolkata in all four games. It was not until the 2010 IPL Season that Kolkata won against Mumbai. Both sides have been captained by Indian cricket legends at one point. This rivalry has often played out in Mumbai's favor as they have won 19 games compared to Kolkata's 6 wins but has been known league wide as an exciting match-up. Both have played each other twice in the playoffs.In 2011, both teams played against each other in the Eliminator round as both franchises made their first playoff appearances. This marked the first time the two teams met in the playoffs. Mumbai won the match by four wickets and advanced to the next round, ultimately losing to the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
In 2012, both teams were chasing a playoff spot in the tournament. The game started out terribly for KKR as their batting side couldn't score runs. KKR picked up the pace and ended the inning with 140/7. Mumbai was expected to win at that point and started to attack quickly and started 60/2 with more than 10 overs left to play. Mumbai quickly collapsed and finished their innings with 108 runs and all out. Sunil Narine was named Man of the Match with 4 wickets and KKR eliminated MI from the playoffs. KKR won its first championship that season. Knight Riders owner Shah Rukh Khan was handed a 5-year ban at Wankhede Stadium, home of the Mumbai Indians. He was accused of walking on the field post game and abusing the security guards. In 2015, the ban was lifted.
Mumbai and Kolkata both faced off in the opening match of the 2015 season. Mumbai was up to bat in the first innings as they scored a promising 168/3. This charge was led by captain, Rohit Sharma with his 98 runs. Kolkata captain, Gautam Gambhir had 57 runs and led his side to victory. Suryakumar Yadav's 46 runs were crucial to KKR's chase.
In 2017, Mumbai earned its 100th T20 win against KKR. Later that season, both sides met in the playoffs in the Qualifier 2 round. KKR had a poor batting performance as they posted 107 runs and all out. Mumbai was able to capitalize and won the match. Mumbai went onto the finals to beat Rising Pune Supergiant to claim their third championship.
From 2015–2018, Mumbai Indians held an eight-game winning streak against the Kolkata Knight Riders. That streak was broken on April 29, 2019, as KKR posted a total of 232 runs and won by 34 runs. Both sides displayed excellent hitting as KKR's Andre Russell scored 80 runs and MI's Hardik Pandya scored 91 runs. KKR holds the record for highest total for an IPL match played at Eden Gardens. This victory was KKR's 100th T20 win.
Home ground
The home venue of the Knight Riders is the iconic Eden Gardens. Owned by the Cricket Association of Bengal, it was the largest cricket stadium in India and had a seating capacity of over 90,000. In 2011, the stadium was renovated to meet the standards set by the International Cricket Council for the 2011 Cricket World Cup; reducing its capacity to around 68,000. The renovated stadium includes a new clubhouse and players' facilities, upgrading the exterior wall, cladding the existing roof structure with a new metal skin, and general infrastructure improvements. In 2013, two of the team's home matches were hosted by the JSCA International Cricket Stadium in Ranchi.Kit manufacturers and sponsors
Multinational communications corporation Nokia was the official founding sponsor of the Kolkata Knight Riders and remained their principal sponsor until 2014. In 2015, Chinese mobile phone manufacturer Gionee took over as their principal sponsor and signed a three-year deal worth. In 2018, Nokia returned as the main sponsor of the Knight Riders, signing a two-year deal. In 2020, BYJU'S became their principal sponsor. Star Plus, Reebok, HDIL, Kit Kat, SB Nation, Doublemint, SAP AG, Red FM 93.5, Seiko, U.S. Polo Assn., Uber, Manyavar, Dish TV, Sansui Electric, Ola Cabs, Exide, Sprite, Dream11, Pepsi and Sony Music India have all formerly been either co-sponsors or partners.As of 2020, they have co-sponsorship deals with Jio, Lux Cozi, Royal Stag, Greenply and Asian Paints along with others. They also have partnerships with The Telegraph, Fever 104 FM and Ibibo.
| Year | Kit manufacturer | Shirt sponsor | Shirt sponsor | Chest Branding |
| 2008 | Reebok | Nokia | Star Plus | Reebok |
| 2009 | Reebok | Nokia | Star Plus | Reebok |
| 2010 | Reebok | Nokia | XXX | Reebok |
| 2011 | Reebok | Nokia | Matrix | Reebok |
| 2012 | Reebok | Nokia | Matrix | Rose Valley |
| 2013 | Reebok | Nokia | Matrix | Rose Valley |
| 2014 | U.S. Polo Assn. | Nokia | Sansui | U.S. Polo Assn. |
| 2015 | U.S. Polo Assn. | Gionee | Sansui | U.S. Polo Assn. |
| 2016 | Lux Cozi | Gionee | Sansui | Lux Cozi |
| 2017 | Lux Cozi | Gionee | Jio | Lux Cozi |
| 2018 | Reebok | Nokia | Jio | Lux Cozi |
| 2019 | Lux Cozi | Nokia | Jio | Lux Cozi |
| 2020 | BYJU'S |
Players
, the former captain of the Indian cricket team was the icon player and led the franchise in the 2008 and 2010 seasons. Brendon McCullum lead the team in the intervening period. Both captains were released before the 2011 season. The former team included all-rounders Chris Gayle, David Hussey, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Angelo Mathews, batsman Ricky Ponting and wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha. The main bowlers were Umar Gul, Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda, Ajit Agarkar and Murali Karthik. Australian batsman Brad Hodge and bowlers Ajantha Mendis and Charl Langeveldt were bought outside the IPL auction in late 2008.At the 2009 auction the team bought Bangladeshi all-rounder Mashrafe Mortaza at a whopping price of $600,000 dollars. Due to the unavailability of Pakistani players starting 2009, KKR had to suspend the contract of Umar Gul, who was a key performer from the 2008 season. On 26 April 2009, KKR administration sent back two of its players Akash Chopra and Sanjay Bangar on the premises of poor performance. Shane Bond was acquired after releasing Ricky Ponting, Morne van Wyk and the Pakistani players Umar Gul, Salman Butt, Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Akhtar before the third season. Moises Henriques was traded to Delhi in return for Owais Shah and Manoj Tiwary. Thus, their overseas roster for the 2010 season consisted of Shane Bond, Mashrafe Mortaza, Brendon McCullum, Charl Langeveldt, Ajantha Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Brad Hodge, David Hussey, Owais Shah and Chris Gayle.
2011 heralded the beginning of a new era for KKR. In the 2011 season, KKR drastically revamped their squad. Former captain and icon player Sourav Ganguly was not purchased in the January auction. This led to protest rallies, signature campaigns throughout the country and abroad along with stadium protests by various fan groups, such as No Dada No KKR, which received both national and international press attention. The team appointed Gautam Gambhir, who was bought for a record-breaking $2.4 million as skipper. Yusuf Pathan was also picked up for a whopping $2.1 million. Other international names who were added include Shakib Al Hasan, Brad Haddin, Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee, Ryan ten Doeschate, Eoin Morgan and James Pattinson. Haddin was replaced by Mark Boucher mid-season due to injury.
In the 2012 auction, KKR bought back their former captain, Brendon McCullum. They also acquired West Indian spinner Sunil Narine and South African fast bowler Marchant de Lange.
The team later added four domestic players to their squad, including Debabrata Das and Iresh Saxena from Bengal, Saurashtra's Chirag Jani and Sanju Samson from Kerala. However, in November 2012, KKR released the latter three from their team along with Jaydev Unadkat, a key performer from the previous seasons. In the 2013 auction, the team acquired only two overseas players, Sachithra Senanayake and Ryan McLaren.
Before the February 2014 auction, the team had only retained their key performers Gautam Gambhir and Sunil Narine. From the auctions that took place, the team brought back Jacques Kallis and Yusuf Pathan with their right-to-match card. Also keeping their place in the squad was Ryan ten Doeschate and Shakib Al Hasan. New international players were Morne Morkel, Patrick Cummins and Chris Lynn. Prominent Indian players bought included Robin Uthappa, Umesh Yadav, Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav and Piyush Chawla.
KKR's impressive additions in the 2015 auction were veteran Australian bowler Brad Hogg and wicket-keeper Sheldon Jackson. Before the auction in February 2016, they released Ryan ten Doeschate who was a part of their team for five consecutive seasons along with pace bowler Pat Cummins. The Knight Riders were particularly noted for their change in approach from the previous auctions where they had concentrated on spinners. For the 2016 edition, however, they acquired as many as six pacers in the form of all-rounders John Hastings, Colin Munro, Jason Holder and Rajagopal Sathish as well as bowlers Ankit Rajpoot and Jaydev Unadkat, with the latter being a former player of the squad. They signed one spinner in Manan Sharma. Before the 2017 auctions, they released Morne Morkel, Brad Hogg, Jason Holder, Colin Munro, John Hastings, Jaydev Unadkat, Rajagopal Sathish, Manan Sharma and replacement signing Shaun Tait. From the 2017 Indian Premier League auction, they signed Trent Boult, English all-rounder Chris Woakes, Australian Nathan Coulter-Nile, West Indian Darren Bravo and Jamaican Rovman Powell. The domestic players signed were Rishi Dhawan, Ishank Jaggi, Sayan Ghosh and R Sanjay Yadav. At the time, Andre Russell was banned for one year for doping; he was replaced by Colin de Grandhomme for the season. In January 2018, they only retained West Indian cricketers Sunil Narine and Andre Russell. Their two-time title winning captain Gautam Gambhir was released. At the auction, they retained Robin Uthappa, Piyush Chawla and Kuldeep Yadav using RTM card. KKR also bought back their impressive opener Chris Lynn and uncapped Indian batsman Ishank Jaggi. Other uncapped batsmen bought were Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Cameron Delport, Rinku Singh and Apoorv Wankhade. They also bought West Indian uncapped all-rounder Javon Searles and uncapped Indian all-rounders Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Shivam Mavi. Other signings were veteran Indian wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik, Australian pace bowlers Mitchell Starc and Mitchell Johnson and former Knight Riders player Vinay Kumar.
On 4 March 2018, Dinesh Karthik was appointed as the captain of KKR for IPL 2018 and Robin Uthappa was named vice-captain. Mitchell Starc was ruled out before the season due to injury and Tom Curran was announced as his replacement. Ahead of the auction for IPL 2019, eight players were released from the squad including Mitchell Starc and his replacement Tom Curran.
At the auction, their high-profile buys were Carlos Brathwaite for and New Zealand pacer Lockie Ferguson for. Other players bought were South African pacer Anrich Nortje, English duo Harry Gurney and Joe Denly as well as uncapped Indian players Nikhil Naik, Prithvi Raj Yarra and Shrikant Mundhe for their base prices of each. Before IPL 2020, KKR released 11 players from their squad and also traded in Siddhesh Lad from Mumbai Indians.
At the 2020 IPL Auction, KKR bought pace bowler Pat Cummins for 15.5 crores. This was the biggest buy in the auction. KKR also purchased Eoin Morgan, who just came off as captain of the World Cup winning England squad. He was bought for 5.25 crores.
Seasons
The Knight Riders qualified for the Champions League Twenty20 in 2011, 2012 and 2014, which was the last edition of the tournament before it being permanently called off. The team was eliminated in the group stage in 2011 and 2012, but finished as runners-up in the ultimate season.Current squad
Administration and support staff
| Position | Name |
| Owner |  Shah Rukh Khan, Jay Mehta, Juhi Chawla |
| CEO and managing director | Venky Mysore |
| Head coach |  Brendon McCullum |
| Assistant coach | Abhishek Nayar |
| Mentor |  David Hussey |
| Spin bowling coach |  Carl Crowe |
| Fast bowling coach | Kyle Mills |
| Fielding coach | James Foster |
| Physiotherapist | Kamlesh Jain |
| Strength and conditioning coach | Chris Donaldson |
| Data and video analyst | AR Srikkanth |
Statistics
Overall results
- Abandoned matches are counted as NR
- Win or loss by super over or boundary count are counted as tied.
Result summary
Source:Overall results in CLT20
| Year | Matches | Wins | Losses | No result | % win | % Summary |
| 2011 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 50.00 | 5/10 |
| 2012 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 33.33 | 6/10 |
| 2014 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 83.33 | 2/10 |
| Total | 16 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 60.00 |
| Opposition | Span | Matches | Won | Lost | Tied | No result | % win |
 Auckland Aces | 2011–2012 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 |
 Chevrolet Warriors | 2011 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 |
 Delhi Daredevils | 2012 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
 Perth Scorchers | 2012–2014 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 100.00 |
| Royal Challengers Bangalore | 2011 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 |
 Somerset Sabres | 2011 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| South Australia Redbacks | 2011 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
 Nashua Titans | 2012 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Chennai Super Kings | 2014 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Dolphins | 2014 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Hobart Hurricanes | 2014 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 |
 Lahore Lions | 2014 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 |