How KKR piles up runs, wickets & moolah

After spending huge sums of money to bid for their IPL teams and players, team owners are now looking to break even and post a profit. Labonita Ghosh, from the Economic Times, speaks to an official from Kolkata Knight Riders, who says the franchise is looking to spend money on grooming and managing talent. But their aim is to keep operating costs low by restricting the size of their squads.

This year Knight Riders decided to spend their $2 million purse more judiciously. After splurging on marquee players like KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir ($2.4 million) and Yusuf Pathan ($2.1 million) last year, this time they invested in just three players: de Lange, Brendon McCullum again (for $900,000) and a complete nobody called Sunil Narine (for $700,000); at least two of them have proved to be match-winners.

“In the last two years, we have got players like James Pattinson, Shakib Al Hasan and Marchant de Lange practically at base price because nobody else knew about, or wanted, them. This will eventually open up a new revenue stream for us," Venky Mysore, the CEO and MD of Knight Riders said.