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It’s official. Kolkata is no longer part of the IPL. This could be a second blow to Kolkatans, considering that their Prince, aka Sourav Ganguly was asked to step down from captaincy, and now the company(read: Shah Rukh Khan) has decided to do away with the prefix, ‘Kolkata’ from its name. The city’s name has already being deleted from all KKR merchandise already.

 

King Khan may intend to hold a victory march in Kolkata in case his team wins IPL, but then he wants to do away with the city name. Shahrukh Khan was quoted as saying to a news channel "My team is under more pressure because it is owned by a film star and then you have such fan following, the backing of a city that supports you one night and gets angry the next night. But I know they understand and they love the team. I am waiting for the day when I will go around Kolkata with the IPL trophy. I am sure the day will come”.

 

However, the change in name will be official from the next season onwards. Some new sources claimed that Reebok, the official merchandise partner of the team said it was company’s decision to drop the city’s name from all the T-shirt’s socks and accessories.

 

Also an industry source claims that dropping the city name won’t affect the sale of products, as the team is known for its association with Sharukh rather than Kolkata. Moreover, shifting base to cities like Ahmedabad, will help the company handle administrative issues better, and keep controversies at bay.

 

Further, Sharukh is not just planning to change the name, but the company is also planning to shift base. Several reasons are being cited for this, like Ganguly’s loss of captaincy, causing much resentment among the Kolkatan’s, Khan’s feud with Cricket Association of Bengal, also there were rumour doing rounds that Sharukh had asked Ganguly to use his good offices with West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya, which Ganguly had turned down.