Knight Riders hit by mental blog

CAPE TOWN: Shah Rukh Khan has spent a lot of money building up PR for Kolkata Knight Riders. He’s hired the right firms, been out there in the public just about all the time; there’ve been parties, press conferences, cheerleaders, music and almost all the right kind of bytes given by the superstar himself.

Yet, he’s a troubled man. That’s not just because KKR got off to bad start or that relations between ex-captain Sourav Ganguly and coach John Buchanan continue to be strained. It’s mainly got to do with an unknown blogger - who claims to be a KKR team member - bent on letting the cat out of the bag all the time.

The blogger - calling himself Fake IPL Player - is sure he’ll never be a part of the playing XI. "But, there’s one thing I do very well. Serve drinks. And that’s what I am expecting do in South Africa," he writes.

Evidently, he’s doing much more. The day begins with posts on what KKR did at the breakfast table to what Khan had to say to his team, who listened, who smirked, what the coach did the whole day, how’s Ganguly coping with lost captaincy and of course, what the rest of the teams and their players have been up to.

The blogger uses names coined by him to refer to these people. So the pieces are about "our megalomaniac owner", Badshah d****, Coachie, Skipper (Brendon McCullum), Calypso King (Chris Gayle), Lord Almighty or Lordie (a former skipper) and fast bowlers Kaan Moolo and Little John.

Then there are non-KKR personalities like a commentator, Kishen Kanhaiyya, a star batsman, Prince of Patiala and a pacer, Appam Ch*****, among others.

KKR camp slams ‘poison-pen’ blog

An unknown blogger who claims to be a Kolkata Knight Riders team member is letting out what he claims to be KKR team news, giving co-owner Shah Rukh Khan a big headache.

The blogger claims to bring "news" straight from the dressing room. Sample: "Lordie ( a former skipper) took over the match briefing, and boy, was he charged up or what. He just let loose, telling the boys what is expected of them - imagine the slowest member of the team chastizing guys twice as fast on matters such as agility, speed and throwing."

The blog has become such a rage that almost all players in the tournament are clued in, wanting to know who partied where the last night, who went out with whom, and so on.

There’s more. The blogger claims that there’s now a ‘witch-hunt’ to nab him within the next 24 hours and he’s convinced that that will just not be possible.

The team seems to be rattled. Kolkata Knight Riders arrived in Cape Town on Thursday morning for their match against Team Jaipur on Friday.

However, on Thursday, at least till late afternoon, there wasn’t a clue what the team was up to. No training session, no press conference. None of the players or officials were seen moving out of their hotel rooms. Phones were either switched off or put on voice mail.

There was just a buzz that there’d be a team meeting presided over by SRK. But that remained a buzz till the time of going to press.

KKR CEO Joy Bhattacharya has called the blog "poison-pen writing of the dirtiest variety". According to him, there are far too many factual errors and far too little information or insight for the writer to successfully pretend to be a KKR member.

The KKR management’s response itself has provoked several pieces. Like this one: "In Cape Town. Laptops hv bn banned. I’net removed fm rooms. But posts wl continue thru SMS, relayed by my bro in India."

There’s serious gossip doing the rounds not just within the KKR camp but among other teams as well.
There are rumours that there’s quite a bit of infighting inside the team and that a few players and coach and the owner don’t see eye to eye. One of the blogs says how Ganguly is waiting for that one big knock to get back at SRK.

The latest one also talks about senior players being questioned about the blog.

So, who’s Fake IPL Player? That’s now a subject of intense speculation. Is he actually a KKR member or just faking it? The blogger describes himself as a "perennial no hoper" Ranji cricketer who bowls and bats a bit, and fields "like a maniac". There are several personal references - but these could well be red herrings.