Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) stand as the third-most successful Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise at this point in time, having won three IPL titles, all featuring Gautam Gambhir in some capacity. However, things weren’t so rosy for the franchise in the first three seasons, when they failed to achieve a single IPL playoff finish, twice under the leadership of legendary India captain Sourav Ganguly. Ganguly was eventually not picked by KKR in the IPL 2011 mega auction. Former KKR team director Joy Bhattacharjya revealed the messages he received from angry fans when Ganguly wasn’t picked, and the extent of team owner Shah Rukh Khan’s involvement in the decision.
“When Sourav Ganguly was not bid for, within five minutes I got 400 messages on my phone. There was somebody who put on all groups saying, ‘This is a Bengali who has betrayed our Bengali icon Sourav Ganguly, please tell him what we think of him’,” revealed Bhattacharjya, speaking on ‘A Century of Stories‘ podcast.
“It reached a stage where I had to turn around and tell my dad that perhaps he should take down our address board from his house in Salt Lake,” Bhattacharjya adds.
Joy Bhattacharjya revealed who exactly had been behind the decision, and Shah Rukh Khan’s involvement in it.
“Shah Rukh first distanced himself. He said, ‘If you want Sourav, keep Sourav. If you don’t want him, your call,” revealed Bhattacharjya.
“Dav Whatmore was the coach, I was there, Venky Mysore the CEO was there,” Bhattacharjya said, speaking on who decided that Ganguly would not be retained.
KKR’s decision to not go for Ganguly but instead put their faith in Delhi-born Gautam Gambhir for a then IPL auction record sum of over Rs 11 crore ended up being a blessing in disguise.
Gambhir captained the team to two IPL titles (in 2012 and 2014) and then played an integral role as team mentor as KKR won their third (in 2024). Overall, KKR has reached the playoff stage on six out of eight occasions with Gambhir in the team.
Ganguly eventually played two further IPL seasons, after being drafted in by the now-defunct Pune Warriors India (PWI) franchise as a replacement for New Zealand opener Jesse Ryder. In IPL 2012, under Ganguly’s leadership, PWI finished bottom of the table.
Gambhir’s success with KKR as team mentor – leading to KKR achieving statistically the most dominant season in IPL history – saw Gambhir being appointed as Team India head coach after Rahul Dravid‘s departure.
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