The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are an Indian Premier League franchise cricket team that represents Kolkata. Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, Bollywood actress Juhi Chawla, and her spouse, Jay Mehta, own the franchise. The magnificent Eden Gardens stadium hosts the Knight Riders. The franchise, which has attracted a lot of attention because of its celebrity owners, played in the IPL playoffs for the first time in 2011. In 2012, they won the IPL after beating Chennai Super Kings in the final. In 2014, they did it again, beating Kings XI Punjab.
Gautam Gambhir is the team’s all-time leading run-scorer, while Sunil Narine is the team’s leading wicket-taker. Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo Re (we will perform, fight, and win!) is the team’s official theme, and purple and gold are the official colors. In 2018, the Knight Riders’ brand value was assessed to be $104 million, which was the second-highest among IPL franchises. Their worth was estimated to be 629 crores (US$84 million) in 2019.
The Indian Premier League was founded in 2007 by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and is based on the Twenty20 version of the game. The inaugural tournament, held in April–June 2008, featured eight teams. On February 20, 2008, the teams representing India’s eight major cities were auctioned off in Mumbai. The team representing Kolkata was subsequently purchased for $75.09 million by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s company Red Chillies Entertainment, in collaboration with actress Juhi Chawla and her husband Jay Mehta, for a total of 2.98 billion rupees at the time. Retired Indian national team captain Sourav Ganguly, a West Bengal native and present President of the BCCI, was voted the team’s Icon player. The team’s name is a nod to the popular American television show Knight Rider from the 1980s. The team’s management group purchased a stake in the Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel of the Caribbean Premier League in June 2015, and the squad was renamed the Trinbago Knight Riders in 2016. The team will also invest in the future American T20 league Major League Cricket in December 2020.
