T20 match is multiplex of cinema halls: SRK

KINGS ON CHAT: Shah Rukh Khan (L) and Sourav Ganguly speaking to CNN-IBN's Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai.

          

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Is the Indian Premier League changing cricket from a sport to a business venture? No, says Kolkata Knight Riders owner Shah Rukh Khan. His captain Sourav Ganguly agrees. CNN-IBN editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai caught up with two Knights for this exclusive interview.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Who’s the hero of the team?

Sourav Ganguly: Shah Rukh.

Shah Rukh Khan: I’m just a fan of the team. We are very clear. We are only going to praise each other in public and privately I believe that I’m a fan of the Knight Riders. I’m the 12th man of the team.

Rajdeep Sardesai: You are indeed the 12th man of the team because the other day when you beat Delhi in that fantastic game at the Eden Gardens, you were running around the field like a 12 year old who had just been given his first lollypop in a sense.

Shah Rukh Khan: See this is a way to scare the team because I’ve told them that if they don’t win I’ll start batting and bowling.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Cricket and entertainment — is that the way you see this? Do you think that at the end of the day people in Kolkata are coming to watch Shah Rukh or the team?

Sourav Ganguly: Both.

Rajdeep Sardesai: But isn’t his presence on the field or in the dressing room a distraction?

Sourav Ganguly: No, I don’t think it’s a distraction because he is as tense as any of us before a game.

Rajdeep Sardesai: There’s a feeling among cricketers that the dressing room is a sacred place. Do you think that in some sense the IPL has changed that?

Shah Rukh Khan: I do think the dressing room is a sacred place. As a matter of fact, from day one I’ve taken the permission of John and Sourav before I enter the room. Even till date, I knock on the door and I ask am I allowed to come in.

Rajdeep Sardesai: So the king bows before the dada when it comes to cricket?

Shah Rukh Khan: Absolutely. The king bows before the rules of the game.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Are you saying that because Shah Rukh is the owner of the team? After all you are the one Indian cricketer who always speaks his mind.

Sourav Ganguly: We have never treated him as an owner and neither have we felt that he behaves like an owner.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Nobody knows where Shah Rukh Khan gets his energy from. You want to give us the secret to that?

Shah Rukh Khan: I just get excited. I like excitement. I like new things. I’m like a child. It’s strange for years I’ve been thinking I’ll grow older and I’ll settle down and be a normal kind of a guy but it doesn’t happen.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Are you surprised with how big the IPL has become, Sourav? Were you initially sceptical?

Sourav Ganguly: Cricket will always be big in this country. Whether it is Twenty20, Test Cricket or One Day. It can only get bigger.

Rajdeep Sardesai: I fail to understand why on a Wednesday night, when the rest of the world should be working, people of Calcutta were all going to the Eden Gardens?

Sourav Ganguly: That’s because they are crazy about the team and Shah Rukh.

Rajdeep Sardesai: The other thing that has struck me is the number of senior cricketers who are doing so well in this Twenty20 format. That, in a way, bolsters the point that class is permanent.

Sourav Ganguly: I’ve always said its not about the age, but it’s about performance.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Have you also been stunned, Shah Rukh, by the sheer support that this tournament has got; particularly in Kolkata?

Shah Rukh Khan: We were given a choice to choose our centre and, not deriding any other centre, I think good sense and logic said that Kolkata has a club culture; it’s the place where we should go. Second, I’m not stunned. I had assumed that IPL would be 70 per cent of what it is right now. Nobody believed me then. Everybody said regional things don’t work and nobody’s going to follow it. But I thought it’ll peak, it’ll plateau and then it’ll peak again. The only difference is that the plateau is at a higher level than I thought it would be.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Is this the new form of entertainment? Instead of watching a film, people come to watch the Kolkata Knight Riders.

Shah Rukh Khan: It will be jumping the gun if we assume that straight away. But I can tell you why it is entertainment. I think, one, it is reality. Two, it’s the kind of entertainment which is wonderful where you don’t have to break for a meal. Third is music, the colour, notwithstanding the cheerleader controversy.

Rajdeep Sardesai: But do all the cricketers embrace this concept?

Sourav Ganguly: The moment it comes to winning and losing it gets intense because you have reputations at stake. I have captained Indian for six years for nearly 200 games but still I don’t walk into the field to lose.

Shah Rukh Khan: The first day when we were playing in Bangalore , Sourav said, “You know, I’ve captained this country and I have played a lot of matches. I know this stuff, man but I’ve never been as nervous as I’m being right now, going and leading this team on.”

Rajdeep Sardesai: Is it about winning at the end of the day that drives you?

Shah Rukh Khan: Life is like that, Rajdeep. Personally my belief is: Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo. That’s what life is about and I make no bones saying that. When I say winning, I don’t mean going and winning that one match. I mean having that ideology that we are going to do our best.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Sourav are you a complete convert to Twenty20 cricket? I’m asking you this because there was a feeling six months ago that the senior cricketers were reluctant to play this game but you’ve embraced it.

Sourav Ganguly: I still feel Test Cricket is the real judge of players’ ability. But this is one format of the game, which has picked up and will go on and players will have to learn how to play it or somebody else will play it.

Shah Rukh Khan: In my language, of entertainment, I think T20 is the multiplex of cinema halls. The movie’s the same but it offers you a little more. It’s still cricket but it’s being offered to you in a different manner.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Are the Shoaibs and the Souravs the stars of the Kolkata Knight Riders or are you the star, Shah Rukh?

Shah Rukh Khan: When we are dancing at the party after winning or losing the match, I’m the star. When we’re playing cricket, Sourav is the star.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Every night, irrespective of whether you win or lose, there’s a party?

Shah Rukh Khan: Yes, we have to realise that we have to play our best and the day we play our best, I think we should celebrate it.

Rajdeep Sardesai: When you and Priyanka Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi come out for the match, is this like a day out, a form of entertainment for Shah Rukh and buddies?

Shah Rukh Khan: If you ask me, the last thing on my mind when we go and play is entertainment. When we are playing I’m really stressed but I don’t want that stress to pass on to these boys.

Rajdeep Sardesai: What does he tell you before a match? Does he tell you that you better win otherwise you’re sacked as captain?

Sourav Ganguly:. Yeah (laughs).

Shah Rukh Khan: Actually, they tell me they’ll sack me.

Sourav Ganguly: If I’m sacked a s a captain I wouldn’t mind. I’ll enjoy playing as a player.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Do you approve of the cheerleaders Sourav? Do you like them?

Sourav Ganguly: Well, when we play on the field, my attention never goes there because there a lot of things are going on in my mind — I have to think about the game, watch the cricket ball, captain the side, etc. I’ve never really worried about the cheerleaders.

Shah Rukh Khan: During the Twenty20s he’s got other figures to deal with!

Rajdeep Sardesai: Shah Rukh, what are your views on the cheerleaders. Is it a part of the package at the end of the day?

Shah Rukh Khan: Maybe I’m a wrong guy to be asked this question because I’m surrounded by cheerleaders on my sets. A lot of them, at least, from our team, work with me in the cinema. I’m never distracted on the sets so I wont be distracted on the field. I think you can’t just suddenly take a moral stand and say this is right and that isn’t. It’s cricket at the end of it all. Yes some people will have issues with the clothing. Suddenly we’ll become very moralistic about certain things.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Some believe IPL has brought in corporatisation of cricket, others say it's brought out the darker side of the game.

We've seen when the CEO of Bangalore Royal Challengers was sacked, there were questions about the captain Rahul Dravid as well with Vijay Mallya making certain comments. Does this corporate side of the game trouble you as a cricketer or do you just see big money benefiting the game?

Sourav Ganguly: Of course it will benefit the game. Money benefits everyone, so it will help the game as well. About Vijay Mallya, I think the point of view varies from owner to owner. It'll be unfair for me to say from the outside whether he is right or wrong.

Rajdeep Sardesai: You are being diplomatic. Rahul Dravid is a great friend of yours. What if Vijay Mallya were to tell Rahul, 'I don't want you as a captain.' Would you like that as a cricketer?

Sourav Ganguly: I've been in the situation of not being wanted as a captain. I haven't liked it so I am sure Rahul won't like it either.

Rajdeep Sardesai: As an owner, do you feel you own these cricketers or do you feel they are a part of your team and therefore you can't sack them if they don't perform in a couple of games?

Shah Rukh Khan: No, not at all. I am very emotionally attached to each one of my team members. I know how it feels to not succeed. I have played sports in my younger days and I still play. I know the heart and the mind of a sportsman. We cannot generalise this as corporate influx into Indian cricket because, to be very honest, I am hardly a corporate. I don't even know how corporates work. So may be I am the wrong guy to be talking to.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Are you saying, Shah Rukh, that you have put in $79.5 million in this venture and yet, this is not a business for you?

Shah Rukh Khan: No, I don't know even one number of what's happening in my company and I don't want to know. I just want to make sure this team is very happy, there's no sadness in this team, no sacking etc. I can't do it.

Rajdeep Sardesai: So you are saying even if the Kolkata Knight Riders don't reach the finals of the IPL, Sourav Ganguly stays the captain? Right?

Shah Rukh Khan: Not reaching and winning is not an option. I don't even think like that. But Sourav Ganguly will be the captain of this team till he is 106 years old.

Rajdeep Sardesai (to Shah Rukh): Talking about the Kolkata connection — you were born in Delhi, you become a success in Mumbai but you chose Kolkata. Is there an emotional attachment that you find there?

Shah Rukh Khan: It will be too soon to say that in one months’ time. I’m emotionally there because the team is from there. So I think it’s the birthplace of something, which I believe will last with me for a lifetime. But just to let you know, I’m Shah Rukhda and I feel very intelligent now because all dadas are very smart and intelligent.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Sourav have you taught him any Bengali?

Shah Rukh Khan: No not yet but I will in due course of time.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Its emotional success, it’s going to be crucial for the success of IPL Kolkata Knight Riders. Shah Rukh, will it be a 365-day engagement for you?

Shah Rukh Khan: No, it wont be a 365-day engagement. I’m a son of India so I have to go everywhere. The first time I went to Kolkata was for the premier of Darr and I remember I was walking behind Yash Chopra and Juhi Chawla. I raised my arm to say hello to someone and somebody caught it and picked me up. There were thousands of people. I didn’t know I was so popular till I went to Kolkata. So that’s my first impression of Kolkata.

Rajdeep Sardesai: People thought that how would you build a team when you’ve brought in cricketers from different parts of the country and the world. Has it been easy to get them all to embrace the Kolkata culture?

Sourav Ganguly: It has not come to a stage where they had to embrace the Kolkata culture. But cricket is the something, which brings everything together. Whether it’s Kolkata, Mumbai or Bangalore. Maybe it’s a bit more in my city.

Rajdeep Sardesai: I was fascinated when Ishant Sharma, who’s a hardcore dilliwala, jumping around and cheering when you won.

Shah Rukh Khan: How about Shoaib Akhtar from Pakistan bowling out Sehwag? That’s even bigger. I have come to this conclusion that it is all pseudo patriotism we show: ‘Oh we hate Pakistanis and oh we love India.’ Actually it is not about countries, it is about teams.

Rajdeep Sardesai: So team Kolkata has come together as have other teams. Cricket is the glue you are saying that brings people together. Shah Rukh Khan was the team branding, theme song and uniforms all your idea?

Shah Rukh Khan: There are three parts: administrative, which I know nothing of. Sujay handles it with a set of people. There is the cricket part of it, which is handled by John, the cricket team, and Sourav. Then there is the entertainment part of it. Now that’s something I do for a living. That’s why its been demarcated well. I’m the cheerleader who’s wearing long pants.