Ganguly to lead Kolkata Knight Riders

The Indian Premier League's Kolkata franchise have named their team Kolkata Knight Riders. The announcement was made by the team's owner, Shah Rukh Khan, at a press conference in Kolkata to unveil the team name and logo. The team's captain, Sourav Ganguly, as well as coach John Buchanan were also in attendance.

"Lot of efforts have gone into making this team, and now I am very happy to be a party to this wonderful team led by Sourav Ganguly," Shah Rukh said. The team's jersey, which was revealed at the function, is a combination of black and gold, and has been designed by Bollywood designer Manish Malhotra, while their logo is a golden helmet. "Black is the colour of goddess Kali and we aim for gold."

It was also announced that four Bengal players - allrounders Laxmi Shukla and Saurasish Lahiri, wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha and Rohan Banerjee - have been signed on. A team anthem was also released as part of the franchise's marketing campaign. The song, composed by Bollywood duo Vishal-Shekhar, has the words 'Korbo, lorbo, jitbo, re' which in Bengali means 'do it, fight and win'. "Hoog Lee", the tiger, will be the team's mascot.

The Kolkata Knight Riders have the likes of Ricky Ponting, Chris Gayle, Ishant Sharma, Shoaib Akhtar, Brendon McCullum, David Hussey, and Umar Gul in their ranks as well as Ajit Agarkar and Murali Kartik.

They bought two Pakistanis - Salman Butt ($100,000) and Mohammad Hafeez ($100,000) - and two India Under -19 players in Siddarth Kaul and Iqbal Abdulla in the second auction on Tuesday.