Any "tinkering" in the IPL format to make space for it in the coronavirus-hit calendar will not be acceptable to Kolkata Knight Riders CEO Venky Mysore, who on Thursday asserted that all the franchises want the T20 league to be held in its complete form. The IPL was postponed indefinitely after a lockdown to contain the COVID-19 pandemic came into force in March.
As the 16th edition of the glitzy Indian Premier League is set to unfold, let's take a look at the driving force of the T20 league and what's in store in this edition.
Bollywood superstar and principal owner Shah Rukh Khan on Sunday cheered for Kolkata Knight Riders from the stands even as his new-look team, under new skipper Dinesh Karthik, looked to regain some lost ground in the post-Gautam Gambhir era at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji present the best performing players in IPL-11 in Rediff.com's Most Valuable Players ratings.
Robin Uthappa was elegance personified during his 52-ball 80 as he powered Kolkata Knight Riders to a convincing six-wicket win over Mumbai Indians in their Indian Premier League match in Cuttack on Wednesday.
'Sometimes we arrange a Zoom call just for him to say hello to the players, that's about it.' 'But otherwise, no, no direct talk, it's never happened, even in a normal year.' 'After the game, you win, you lose, SRK is there to encourage the team, give them hugs.'
On paper, Kolkata Knight Riders are overwhelming favourites against King's XI Punjab.
Rajneesh Gupta presents statistical summary of Kolkata Knight Riders and much more.
For the Gujarat Lions to roar, their top-heavy batting order must first win in unison against a consistent KKR bowling attack.
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji present Rediff.com's Most Valuable Player Index of IPL 2023 after Game 52.
India Test skipper Virat Kohli was among the few cricketers who received a higher actual salary according to the salary details of the retained Indian Premier League players listed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India on Friday.
Virat Kohli's tenure as captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore may have ended without an IPL triumph but the franchise will nonetheless 'celebrate' his contributions over the years, said the team's pacer Harshal Patel.
With age comes experience and few know it better than West Indies Test captain Denesh Ramdin, who still regrets an unsavoury act of flashing a note towards Vivian Richards after scoring a century against England in Birmingham back in 2012.
A look at how the teams stack up ahead of the mega auction.
Meet the winners of the past seven editions of the T20 World cup.
Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders would look to return to winning ways.
Mumbai Indians have an eight-match winning streak against Kolkata Knight Riders with an overall 18-5 head-to-head record.
Sri Lanka pace veteran Lasith Malinga on Tuesday announced his retirement from all forms of cricket after terrorising the world's best batsmen for over a decade and a half with his toe-crushing yorkers delivered from a low and distinct sling-arm action.
Kuldeep is in his fourth season with the KKR but it's only in the recent past that he has cemented his place in the Indian team as its go-to spinner along with Yuzvendra Chahal in the limited overs game.
Chahar started the rot for KKR early in their innings when he trapped opener Chris Lynn in front of the wickets as the Aussie missed a pull off a delivery that kept low. Lynn was sent back inside the first over for a duck. He came into the equation in the next over when he took a brilliant catch, running backwards, to dismiss Sunil Narine for just 6 off the bowling of Harbhajan Singh.
The best-case scenario for RR would be Kings XI Punjab losing their last match and Sunrisers Hyderabad winning no more than one in their last two outings.
Expressing disappointment over his team's second consecutive loss in the Indian Premier League on Saturday, Sunrisers Hyderabad coach Tom Moody said they would reflect on the performance and try to turn around the fortunes quickly.
KKR with 12 points from 12 games would like to win the next two encounters to ensure a smooth passage while CSK, currently at the bottom of the eight-team table, are only playing for pride.
Royal Challengers Bangalore will stand in the way of two-time former champions Kolkata Knight Riders' bid to make it to the play-offs in a mouthwatering Indian Premier League encounter.
Kolkata Knight Riders may have missed a trick by not playing Kuldeep Yadav on a slow Sharjah wicket but skipper Dinesh Karthik said AB de Villiers put the game beyond their reach with an incredible display of power-hitting.
The threat of West Indies being forced to field a second string side at the World Twenty20 was averted on Sunday when 12 of 13 players in the original squad signed the contracts which had caused a standoff with the board.
Rajneesh Gupta presents a complete statistical IPL dossier.
Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders take on Rajasthan Royals at the Brabourne stadium, in Mumbai, on Saturday, in a perform-or-perish contest, as the race for play-off berths in IPL 8 hots up.
Images from Saturday's IPL match between Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders, in Sharjah.
Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Gautam Gambhir is proud of his side's record 12th straight win. Gambhir also praised the team spirit and predicted a great future for Suryakumar Yadav, who helped the IPL champions book their semi-final spot in the Champions League T20 in Hyderabad on Wednesday night.
India concluded the two-match US leg of the series by taking an unassailable 2-0 lead after notching up a 22-run win in the second game on Sunday.
Mumbai Indians beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 13 runs in their Indian Premier League match, in Mumbai, on Sunday.
Kolkata Knight Riders leg-spinner Piyush Chawla said Gujarat Lions got the advantage of bowling on a fresh wicket to secure a five-wicket win in the Indian Premier League T20 cricket tournament in Kolkata.
'We have a number of match-winners, so it's very difficult to go up the order'
Our spinners were nullified today, says Robin Uthappa.
India have a chance to become the sole No 1 team, a position currently shared with South Africa, in the ICC ODI rankings if the hosts blank West Indies 5-0 in the series starting October 8 in Kochi.
The seemingly invincible Kolkata Knight Riders will start outright favourites when they square off against Australia's Hobart Hurricanes in the semi-finals of the Oppo Champions League T20 in Hyderabad.
The nature of T20 cricket is such that insane totals will be chased on particular days while some of the other occasions will witness a team struggling to get past an easy target, believes Kolkata Knight Riders head coach Jacques Kallis.
The BCCI has set a salary cap of Rs 90 crore for 10 IPL franchises, including the two new entrants, for the next season and allowed a maximum of four retentions for the eight established teams.
Kolkata Knight Riders are back in familiar home conditions but can ill-afford to take Kings XI Punjab lightly, who are showing signs of improvement under a newly-appointed skipper, when the two teams clash in Kolkata, on Wednesday.