Indian Premier League

Kolkata Knight Riders chief executive Joy Bhattacharya on Wednesday rubbished rumours of a reported rift between team owner Shah Rukh Khan and captain Sourav Ganguly.

According to media reports, both Shah Rukh and Sourav have fallen apart on several issues including team selection and also on coach John Buchanan being given more power by the owner in running the team.

But Bhattacharya said there are no differences between the Bollywood actor and the captain and that the reports emerging from the media are “baseless and false”.

“We have nothing to say because we think there is no problem in running the team. The reports of rift between Sourav and Shah Rukh are all baseless. The report doesn’t attribute to any source or official. It was an imagination of the reporter’s mind,” Bhattacharya told IANS.

Captain Sourav Ganguly, while leaving Kolkata for his team’s match against Delhi Daredevils, said: “I have no problems with Shah Rukh.”

The Knight Riders are already in a bad situation after their loss to Rajasthan Royals Tuesday night in the Indian Premier League, and it will need a miracle for the Kolkata team to get into the semi-finals.

Bhattacharya admitted that the only problem for the team is “we are losing matches.”

The Chennai Super Kings have beaten Kolkata Knight Riders by 10 wickets as per the D/L method in a storm-hit IPL tie at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

The game came to a halt due to a storm followed by rains when Super Kings were 55 without any loss of wicket in eight overs. According to the D/L method, they were 3 runs ahead of the revised target of 52 runs. Chennai Super Kings openers Stephen Fleming (32) and Parthiv Patel (19) remained unbeaten.

There is no shuffle in the points table but the Super Kings have gained two points and retain their third slot. It’s definitely not a very good news for Kolkata Knight Riders as now Delhi Daredevils and Mumbai Indians are pushing themselves strongly for the fourth place in the semi-finals. [Read more →]

The last thing Kolkata Knight Riders would have asked for after the record thrashing at the hands of Mumbai Indians was a new controversy. And for Sourav Ganguly & Co, their worst fears have come true — with the Shoaib Akhtar syringe controversy snowballing into a bigger issue. [Read more →]