When it was announced that India would start its own franchise based Twenty 20 league back in 2008, it was met with a lot of hue and cry over the future of the gentleman’s game and this was particularly seen in Kolkata which has often been known to extremely traditional when it comes to its sports. But when the Kolkata franchise was acquired by Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan for the fourth highest amount among all the eight teams, a roar seemed to have gone through the city with one of its favorite actors owning its team.
But since then, the cash rich Indian Premier League has given nothing but sorrow to the sports crazy city with the Kolkata Knight Riders failing to reach the semi finals in any of the first three seasons of the IPL, even finishing at the last place in the second edition when it was held in South Africa. The team has gone through numerous controversies with John Buchanan and his multiple captaincy theory, and dropping Sourav Ganguly, the favorite son of Kolkata and even the Fake IPL Player blog as well.
But since the third edition, there have been a lot of changes in the fortune of the Knight Riders with new players brought in at the auction ahead of the fourth edition of the IPL to strengthen the side and to land that elusive trophy. In spite of that, however, the Knight Riders failed to reach the finals last term.
But this term, the KKR has been in deadly form and has already secured a place in the final with captain Gautam Gambhir, spinner Sunil Narine and almost every player in the team in scintillating form. So the question that arises now is whether the Kolkata Knight Riders can bury the ghosts of the past and get its hands on the IPL trophy for the first time.