By Srijony Das Last Updated:
Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders has been one of the most promising teams in the history of the Indian Premiere League so far. The team, which was founded back in 2008, is spear headed by SRK along with Bollywood actress, Juhi Chawla and her husband, Jay Mehta. Over the years, KKR has witnessed some of the most exemplary matches in all its seasons, and its distinct playing 11 has earned a special place in hearts of many cricket enthusiasts. However, it was the leadership of eminent cricketer, Sourav Ganguly as the team’s iconic captain, back in 2008 and 2010, that set the bar for KKR’s winning streak henceforth.
During the recent match of the Kolkata Knight Riders against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the former’s home ground, Eden Gardens, cricket lovers came across the most-awaited reunion of two legends. Well, we speak about Bollywood’s Badshaah, Shah Rukh Khan and the ‘Prince of Kolkata’, Sourav Ganguly. In a clip shared by the official X (formerly Twitter) handle of KKR, Shah Rukh can be seen running sneakily towards Sourav Ganguly, before surprising him with a tight bear hug from behind. Thereafter, the two legends had a hearty conversation, and SRK cutely even gave a peck of love to Sourav on his neck.
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Watch the video here.
Sourav Ganguly was the star player in the inaugural season of the KKR in IPL, and he was positioned as the team’s captain for two seasons, in 2008 and in 2011. However, as in both the successive seasons, KKR didn’t win and secured a lower rank on the table, the management authorities of the team replaced him with Gautam Gambhir. Years later, in an interview with Gautam Bhattacharya, Sourav explained what went wrong and revealed how it was Shah Rukh who never let him navigate the team in his own way. He explained:
“I was seeing an interview where Gautam Gambhir had said Shah Rukh Khan had told him in the fourth year ‘This is your team, I will not interfere.’ That’s what I told him in the first year. Leave it to me. It didn’t happen. he best IPL teams have been those that have left the team to the players. Look at CSK, MS Dhoni runs it. In Mumbai also, no one goes up to Rohit Sharma and tells him to select certain players. Thought process was the issue there.”
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Back in 2012, Shah Rukh Khan gave a clarification over his alleged fallout with Sourav Ganguly, after the latter was replaced from Kolkata Knight Rider’s captaincy. For the unversed, as the owner of the team, the actor faced a lot of criticism for removing such an iconic player from KKR, and many people would end up making unfair comparisons between him and Sourav Ganguly. However, in one of his interviews with the press, Shah Rukh Khan reacted to it all and said:
“Grow up, please. This is sport. Let’s play it like a sport. We keep on talking about Kings and Khans. This is crap, to be honest. I say this with love and respect to all of you. To be honest, if we don’t outgrow this, it is embarrassing not only to us, not only to me, it is embarrassing for Dada also. We should get over this. Every time I come to Kolkata, if you are going to bring this up for a few headlines and some spicy titbits, I think it’s a little unfair.”
What do you think about Sourav Ganguly and Shah Rukh Khan’s reunion? Let us know.
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