The man who has had the worst time of his life – Rahul Dravid, captain, Bangalore Royal Challengers. And probably Vijay Mallya, the team owner.

Brendan McCullum put on the show of his life when he attacked with fours and sixes, ending with the best Twenty20 score ever. Compare that to Bangalore Challengers, where no one even managed to cross into the double digits. Team captain Sourav Ganguly and teammate Ricky Ponting were barely noticed as McCullum’s onslaught was on.

Rahul Dravid, from the beginning, looked nervous – but the he always looks nervous. He was scalped by Ishant Sharma who seemed to enjoy great camaraderie with his arch enemy from Australia, Ricky Ponting. Agarkar too put on a spectacular performance.

Between these two, the demolition of the Bangalore Royal Challengers was complete.
All is not lost, thankfully it is a league, and there are more matches to come for the Bangalore Royal Challengers. Great show today, and great start, Kolkata!

Mercurial Pak pacer Shoaib Akhtar’s ban by the Pakistan Cricket Board has hit Kolkata Knight Riders badly but the Kolkata team is relying on yet another pacer from Pakistan, Umar Gul, to click for them when they take on Bangalore Royal Challegers on April 18, 2008.

Quizzed how Akhtar’s absence will hit his team Skipper Sourav Ganguly said Umar Gul is in his team, indicating the strong expectations Shah Rukh Khan’s team has put on the lanky Pak speedster.  India’s latest teen sensation Ishant Sharma is also a key bowler in the Kolkata Team. Ishant Sharma was the bowling hero of India’s tour Down Under recently.

Sourav Ganguly, who has been unceremoniously kept away from India’s Twenty20 and ODI team despite taking more than 10,000 runs in the latter version of the game also said adjusting to the Twenty20 format would not be much of an issue.

The Kolkata southpaw also said leading a team which has arch foes like Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting would not be a disadvantage. It seems Dada has buried the ghosts of the past for King Khan.

Ishant Sharma had undergone a fitness test as he had sustained a finger injury during the Commonwealth Bank tri-series which India won 2-0. While Gautam Gambhir had never really found a permanent place in the Indian Test squad, his stellar performance Down Under was expected to earn him a spot in the Indian test team against South Africa.
Gautam Gambhir’s Delhi mate and IPL Delhi’s icon player Virender Sehwag will be the second opener after Wasim Jaffer. Mumbai IPL’s Harbhajan Singh, who along with Mohali IPL’s Yuvraj Singh failed to attend a fitness test, would undergo a fitness Test in Bangalore on March 21.

An injury scare to Kartik during a Deodhar Trophy game prompted the selectors to name Piyush Chawla as a ‘reserve’ player. Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh will undergo a fitness test in Bangalore on March 21. If found unfit, they will be replaced by Dinesh Karhtik and Chawla. The first Test against South Africa will be played in Chennai from March 26 to 30 and the second Test in Ahmedabad from April 3 to 7.

The squad 14 member Indian test team: Wasim Jaffer, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid Sachin Tendulkar , Saurav Ganguly, V V S Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Irfan Pathan, Anil Kumble (captain), Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Rudra Pratap Singh.

At the function, Shah Rukh launched the official team logo of “Kolkata Knight Raiders” and also launched “Hoog Lee”, its mascot, which is an animated picture of a tiger. A royal Bengal tiger. The main aim was to focus on nurturing the youth talent in the country which is abundant and to go for a team, which is youth-centric, he said.

The team jersey of Kolkata Knight Raiders was designed by Manish Malhotra and will have gold and black colour combination. Black colour in the jersey represents the goddess kali, a favourite goddess of Bengalis and the gold colour represents the team’s hunger for gold.

Here is an excerpt from The Telegraph:

Shah Rukh handed the golden viking helmets to coach John Buchanan, captain-icon Sourav Ganguly and CAB president Prasun Mukherjee, declaring war against the other seven teams. The first match will be played in Bangalore on April 18, pitting the Knight Riders against Bangalore’s Royal Challengers.

The helmet — the Knight Riders’ logo — is in black and gold, in keeping with the battle theme. Black is “the spirit of Ma Kali as the destroyer of demons” while gold signifies “the team’s aim to win the battle of life”.

The team mascot is a Royal Bengal Tiger called Hoog Lee —“better than any Lee in the world” — a play on Hooghly and googly.

The players’ kits for the Kolkata Knight Raiders would be sponsored by the international apparel brand Reebok.

The function also saw the launch of Kolkata IPL team’s theme song, “Korbo, Lorbo, Jitbo” (We will do it, we will fight it, we will win it), composed by music director duo Vishal and Shekhar. Shah Rukh said, “We have a lot of plans for cricket and entertainment as well during the tournament but those would be disclosed when they happen. We will try to bring lots of things on stage without distracting the game.”

Sourav Ganguly’s team includes Shoaib Akhtar, Ricky Ponting, Chris Gayle, David Hussey, Brendon Mccullum, Umar Gul, Tatenda Taibu, Ajit Agarkar, Ishant Sharma, Murali Kartik, Akash Chopra, Lakshmi Ratan Shukla, R Saha, Sourashish Lahiri and Rohan Banerjee.