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I would love to have Dada back in the team: SRK
There was just the odd incident on Monday of a sparse crowd demonstrating against the Kolkata Knight Riders's (KKR) decision to leave out Sourav Ganguly ahead of the fourth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
There was just the odd incident on Monday of a sparse crowd demonstrating against the Kolkata Knight Riders's (KKR) decision to leave out Sourav Ganguly ahead of the fourth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
By and large however, things were calm. Perhaps just to douse any anticipatory flame, KKR principal owner Shah Rukh Khan said in Durban on Sunday that his team would still like to have Ganguly in some capacity.
"I would love to have Sourav as an integral part of the team. I will speak to him when I go to Kolkata," the Bollywood superstar said after the India-South Africa T20 match, where he entertained the crowd as part of arrangements to mark 150 years of Indians in South Africa.
"I hate losing. I think we let the people of Kolkata down with our performance in the first three seasons. I think we have to win the championship this time for the people of Kokata," Khan said, sending a message for the Kolkata crowd as well.
The dust is yet to settle after the IPL auctions held in Bangalore over the weekend and it is still early days, but the KKR team management has not started thinking just how Ganguly would be involved with the team.
The team already has a coach (Dav Whatmore), assistant coach (Vijay Dahiya) and bowling consultant (Wasim Akram). So far, the team management hasn't even started thinking what role Ganguly could be fitted in. As of now, there are no plans of making an offer to him in the immediate future.
One reason why KKR didn't go for Ganguly at the auctions was they didn't want his overpowering personality to come in the way of the team's functioning. Before auctions, the feeling was that with Ganguly around, taking decisions independent of him would be difficult. There has been nothing to suggest that perception has changed in 24 hours.
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