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'No IPL team possible in Kolkata without Dada'

January 12, 2011 09:42 IST

After being heavily criticized from almost all quarters for ignoring former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly in the recently held Indian Premier League (IPL) auction, Bollywood actor and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) co-owner Shah Rukh Khan has said that there is no IPL team possible in Kolkata without Ganguly.

"I would love it. I would love Sourav to be an integral part. You don't have a team in Kolkata without him," Times Now quoted Shah Rukh Khan, as saying.

Shah Rukh also said that he will talk to Ganguly and that his team will try to take him onboard, since he remains unsold in the recently concluded IPL auction.

Ganguly, who led Kolkata Knight Riders in the last three editions, failed to get a buyer in the two-day IPL players' auction in Bangalore.

Ganguly's name, in fact, did not even come up in the second round of bidding, the players for which were handpicked by the franchises, prompting angry fans to stage protests against his former team Kolkata Knight Riders in the Bengal capital.

A total of 241 of the 353 players in fray went unsold in the first round of auctions, which spanned over two days. 28 players came up for a re-auctioning on the request of the franchises but again some of them strangely went unsold.

Source: ANI