New Delhi: While Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are one of the most popular teams in the Indian Premier League (IPL), its owner Shah Rukh Khan is possibly the most popular team owner. In the first season of the tournament in 2008, while many teams incurred losses, KKR was reportedly the only team to make some profit as a result of SRK's brand value.
However, in the first couple of seasons, as KKR failed to live upto the expectations, SRK was said to be intervening too much in the team meetings.
But KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir has cleared the air and said that is not the case at all as King Khan gives freedom to the management and the senior players to take calls regarding all cricketing matters.
"There was a lot of talk initially that SRK involves too much into these team meetings and decision making but this is my seventh year, I have never had a single input from the team's point of view from Shah Rukh," Gambhir told Harsha Bhogle during a video interview for Cricbuzz.
The left-hander added that cricket is not even the topic of discussion whenever he interacts with the Bollywood legend.
"Honestly, we have never ever discussed cricket together. Because I still remember, once he told me that if someone tells me how to act I would really get angry with him. So I can't tell people what to do when you guys are there. You guys take all the cricketing calls," Gambhir added.
KKR, along with Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, is the only franchise to win the tournament twice.
In the tenth edition, KKR are currently ranked at the top of the points table with four wins from five matches. Their only loss came against Mumbai Indians.
