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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Keywords: Interview, Ganguly

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.