New headache for SRK’s IPL carnival

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who jointly owns the Kolkata Knight Riders through his production company Red Chillies Entertainment, is up against a wall now, with the Army and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) demanding massive sums of money for giving Eden Gardens the go-ahead for the IPL carnival.

With the Indian Premier League (IPL) extravaganza just a fortnight away now, the Twenty20 tournament’s Kolkata leg has been dealt a fresh blow over a new money-sharing dispute.

It was learnt through reliable sources in the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) that Army, which owns the Eden Gardens — venue of the IPL matches in Kolkata — has asked the tournament’s organisers to pay up a whopping Rs 6 crore to get the green signal for hosting the matches. And even as the CAB administration has thrown the ball in the court of the Kolkata franchisee Red Chillies Entertainment, another setback came calling, this from the KMC.

The Corporation is learnt to have asked the organisers to pay Rs 20 for every seat from the general stands for the entire 7-seven phase for the IPL’s Kolkata chapter, which effectively runs into several crore Rupees.

Eden Gardens will host seven home matches of the Kolkata Knight Riders, with their opening home match slated for April 20 against Hyderabad’s Deccan Chargers.

Express India