Pradipta Mukherjee / Kolkata Apr 30, 2009, 00:24 IST
After dropping “Kolkata” from Indian Premier League team (IPL) Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), actor Shah Rukh Khan has started discussions with Nokia, Sahara, the Anil Ambani group, and several other companies to sell the team he bought just over a year ago for Rs 300 crore, and exit the business.
According to sources in Red Chillies Entertainment, KKR’s holding company, “Shah Rukh Khan has been trying to sell a stake in KKR for some time now. But since most companies he approached also wanted management control, Khan is now talking to Nokia, Sahara, Anil Ambani and others to sell his entire shareholding.”
Khan’s public relations officer, however, said she would not be able to confirm the development because she had not met the actor.
None of those who have reportedly been approached confirmed the development. Sahara India’s communications director Abhijit Sarkar said: “We have not been approached by Shah Rukh Khan yet. But if he does, we would be happy to buy the team.”
D Shivakumar, vice-president and managing director (markets), Nokia India, sent a text message saying: “Shah Rukh Khan will keep the team.”
A Reliance Communications spokesperson declined to comment. “A lot of people negotiate with Anil Ambani. I cannot comment unless there is something concrete on table.”
According to the Red Chillies official, Khan wants to exit, owing to the team’s poor performance — so far the team has won only one rain-curtailed game under the Duckworth Lewis method — and rising costs.
“If the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) does not increase the number of teams for next year, Khan could get double what he paid,” said the Red Chillies official.
Khan is supposed to pay Rs 30 crore per year for the next 10 years. The total annual cost for the team is about Rs 75 crore.
Khan had earlier said that KKR was easily the most successful IPL franchise, making a Rs 13 crore profit last year. However, his costs trebled last year owing to interventions from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and Cricket Association of Bengal.
According to initial calculations, Red Chillies had to pay Rs 90 lakh per match and was supposed to earn Rs 3 crore if all stadium tickets were sold at Eden Gardens. Red Chillies had to pay Rs 20 lakh to the police and municipal tax of Rs 5 lakh. So its expenses per match would have been over Rs 1 crore. But this figure had trebled.
Last year, however, Kolkata Police demanded Rs 2 crore as security fees, against Rs 50 lakh that the organisers of the IPL offered. Then, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) demanded Rs 25 lakh from Red Chillies as amusement tax for holding IPL matches at Eden Gardens.
To settle the dispute between Kolkata Police and the IPL organisers over the cost of security arrangements at Eden Gardens, Red Chillies Entertainment had to agree to pay Rs 75 lakh as security fees.
About 5,500 uniformed personnel and about 1,500 sleuths were deployed to secure the stadium and its surrounding areas, since many celebrities were expected to watch the IPL matches at Eden Gardens.
shahruk dont worry. we children are always supporting knight riders. we dont want our favourite hero to lose hope. it hurts us seeing you so dissapointed.we are not able to concentrate in our studies because our favourite shahruk is so dissapointed and sad.dont worry shahruk our support is only for you. we love you so much.
just wanted to congratulate business standard and the correspondent on the development. All newspapers, even economic times and times of india, have copied from this article and have been writing so many stories. I even saw television channels running exactly the same story even today. I am lucky i subscribe to business standard. all the best!
Very accurate article. Knight Riders this year is the last team in terms of performance. may b next year the team will no longer play bcos its performance, last year and this year, have been so so bad. sourav ganguly is not playing well. infact nobody is playing well. the entire team seems to have lost focus.
Yes of cos i like SRK Dada and Kolkatha.The main reason why the perfomance dipped so is all due to the captaaincy change.As a batsman McCulam is good but as a captain he is zero.What KKR to do now is to throw Buckanan from the seat of coach.under his coaching team doesnt have a co-ordination.All the very best KKR
Atheist Trivandrum
I just want to say that main reason of the failure of KKR is matter of captaincy. SIR SOURAV GANGULY IS GREATEST CAPTAIN. Then what was the need to change the captain. BRENDON MECCULLUM IS ZERO IN CAPTAINCY. Shahrukh should remember in last year the cause of failure was not captaincy, it was due to unbalanced team. After all this SOURAV played good innings and got win. So I WANT TO SAY THAT CAPTAIN SHOULD BE SIR SOURAV GANGULY.
its good srk is leaving. he was trying to find partners since last year. he shud have never bought a team if he has such a huge ego.
Posted by: Salai
May 06 , 2009, 11:09 IST
U jerk Sohail. Just who do u think u are! SRK is a superstar only for himself. And he go to that position only because of the people's response to his movies. He knows next to nothing about cricket. Why on earth is he, or for that matter, Vijay Mallya, dabbling in it?
Posted by: sohail
May 05 , 2009, 23:43 IST
I dont no y the people are so intrested in other's life. Srk is a Superstar man what ever decisions he take its up to him. We are not the supposed peron to comment.
talking as neutral , i like shahruk as much as i like ganguly.
But i was amazed with the amount of politics shahruk tried to play. I bet, he will join congress sometime in his carrier, as bollywood carrier nowadays ends up with politics.
I think it is good shahrukh is running away. He was trying to play politics with Saurav Ganguly, one of India's finest ex-captains.
He was trying to show Saurav Ganguly disrespect, now has got it himself, with him and Buchanans multiple captaincy ideas.
shahrukh should know that when there are many utensils , they sound more.
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