Playing the zero-sum game

	Kolkata is the one city that can absorb Shah Rukh Khan's in-your-face stardom without either being indifferent or overwhelmed © AFP

A week is a long time in politics and a lifetime in the IPL. Round about this time last week the Kolkata Knight Riders were on their high horses, and with good reason after their win over the IPL champions in the season-opener. Two days later they repeated the act against Bangalore. Yet on Saturday afternoon Kolkata’s players will be facing the heat, literally and figuratively, when they step out at Motera to take on Rajasthan Royals. And the weatherman’s prediction of temperatures of up to 40 degrees centigrade will pale in comparison to the tensions in the away dressing room. Kolkata’s season is only three games old but it’s already on a knife edge following that disaster against Chennai. There is every indication that Tuesday’s defeat was a blip, and the arrival of Chris Gayle, with Brendon McCullum following early next month, could only make things better. Yet there is, among fans and neutral observers, a feeling that it could all go belly up again, that the gravitational pull of a desperately disappointing 2009 season will stop them from soaring.

Kolkata’s zero-sum existence, its inability to operate anywhere outside of the extremes, perhaps explains why Shah Rukh Khan picked the city to be his franchise base – it’s a scenario he is familiar with in his Bollywood avatar. It is, one daresay, the city that comes closest to matching him in histrionics and theatre, the one city that can absorb his in-your-face stardom without either being indifferent or overwhelmed. After all, it’s a city that has lived with Sourav Ganguly.

The franchise joined in that spirit for the first two seasons, dominating headlines for events on the field and off it (sadly, much more of the latter) and saw their cricketing aspirations crumble under the weight of hubris and hype. The team’s entire approach has been more low-key this year, from the appointment of the taciturn Dav Whatmore to the apparent abolition of the lavish after-parties. Ganguly was asked about this and his response was typically mischievous: "We are still hungover from the parties we had in the past couple of years."

The fans have responded in kind – Kolkata reported the highest TV ratings among metros for the season opener and there were plenty of bums on seats at Eden Gardens for the two home games (though they never really went away). Yet KKR cannot escape their goldfish-bowl life back home. Local coverage has gone past saturation level; a friend messaged me saying anyone reading the Kolkata papers alone would assume there’s only one team in the IPL. Star Ananda, the news channel owned by the Ananda Bazar Patrika group, begins its match-day coverage at 9am and continues till the next morning, with obligatory analyses punctuated by celeb-watching. Under such scrutiny, the next controversy is only a headline away. Even as a dispute over “illegal” terracing at Eden Gardens is resolved, the FakeIPL player releases his “fictional” account of a season with the Calcutta Cavalry.

That high-profile life comes with the territory. When they sign their new roster of players at the next auction, perhaps the Knight Riders will include a suit of body armour along with the purple kit.