When you hear the chant Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo Re (We will perform, fight, and win!) in the stadiums, it’s the cue that Knights in purple and gold jerseys are playing today. The Kolkata Knight Riders are a cricket franchise owned by Sharukh Khan, Juhi Chawla, and her husband Jay Mehta that represents the city of Kolkata. The Knight Riders Sports Pvt Ltd, which they founded, owns the KKR team. At the time, current BCCI president Saurav Ganguly was selected as the team’s icon player.
The Kolkata Knight Riders have won the Indian Premier League twice. Kolkata Knight Riders won their trophy for the first time in 2012, defeating Chennai Super Kings, and then again in 2014, beating Kings XI Punjab. This team has the longest winning streak of any Indian team in T20 cricket.
The Kolkata Knight Riders’ home stadium is Eden Gardens, which the Bengal Cricket Association owns. With a seating capacity of approximately 90,000, it is one of India’s largest stadiums. However, the seating capacity was lowered to 68,000 after renovations in 2011. Nonetheless, Eden Garden is the third-largest cricket stadium in the world. This year, Eden Garden is set to host two playoff games of the Indian Premier League on May 24 and 25. The first match on the 24th will be Qualifier 1, and the second match will be the Eliminator on the 25th.
They have the longest winning streak in IPL history, having won 10 games from 2014 to 2015. The winning streak began on May 7, 2014, against Delhi Daredevils and ended with a three-wicket victory over Kings XI Punjab in the season’s final match. Three of the nine wins were against Kings XI Punjab. The teams they defeated during that run in 2014 were the Delhi Daredevils, Mumbai Indians, Sunrisers Hyderabad (twice), Chennai Super Kings, and Royal Challengers Bangalore.
The winning streak continued when they won the first match but lost the second. No wonder everyone wants KKR’s players in their fantasy cricket team. Fantasy cricket is a virtual game that allows players to create their cricket teams with players from the two teams playing the live match. Players can play fantasy cricket and win real cash. They choose their team based on the past performance of the players.
Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine, Shreyas Iyer, Pat Cummins, Abhijeet Tomar, Sam Billings, Alex Hales, Ramesh Kumar, Mohammed Nabi, Aman Khan, Umesh Yadav, Nitish Rana, Shivam Mavi, Sheldon Jackson, Ajinkya Rahane, Rinku Singh, Anukul Roy, Rasikh Dar, Chamika Karunaratne, Ashok Sharma, Pratham Singh. Some of these players are among the top chosen players for fantasy cricket.
Players who have been retained in 2022:
This year, Kolkata Knight Riders invested 34 crores in retaining four players:
- Andre Russell (All-rounder)-INR 12 crores
- Venkatesh Iyer (All-rounder)-INR 8 crores
- Varun Chakravarthy (Bowler)-INR 8 crores
- Sunil Narine (All-rounder)-INR 6 crores
The following are some interesting facts about the Kolkata Knight Riders:
- During the first four seasons, the spontaneous KKR team underperformed, but it all changed in 2012 when they hit it big and won the championship.
- The overall value of Kolkata Knight Riders in 2022, according to Forbes, is $1.1 billion.
- The Kolkata Knight Rider jersey was designed by Manish Malhotra, a well-known fashion designer.
- It is the Indian Premier League’s third most valuable franchise.
- The Knight Riders’ opening batsman, Brendon McCullum, scored 158 runs in the first IPL T-20 match, breaking the T-20 tournament record for most runs scored by a batsman.
