Sad! Kotla will miss King Khan tonight

Following a controversy earlier this week about Knight Riders owner Shahrukh Khan presence in his teams dressing room and dug out, King Khan has written to his team that he wont be present in the stadiums for the remaining two matches, the penultimate one to be played today against the Delhi Daredevils here.

New Delhi, May 22 : Following a controversy earlier this week about Knight Riders' owner Shahrukh Khan presence in his team's dressing room and dug out, "King Khan" has written to his team that he won't be present in the stadiums for the remaining two matches, the penultimate one to be played today against the Delhi Daredevils here.

In an SMS sent to his team last evening, SRK, who is also the 12th man of his team, said he loved them and asked them to simply concentrate on the remaining games and forget the rest, including his alleged recent spats with skipper Saurav Ganguly over team selection.

SRK's SMS, which was reportedly "leaked" out to the media by one of the Knight Riders, read: "I am still trying to understand the code of conduct expected of me at the matches of the IPL.... ICC... Etc.... After I understand it, I will decide whether to accept it or not.... Till such time, I will be with you guys at the hotel... in the meetings etc., but won't come for the matches.... So, please don't ever feel it is anything to do with us as a team...."

He added: "I am as dedicated to my Knights as I am to my kids.... Only, I won't be coming to the classroom till the headmaster's rules are understood by me.... I am a bit anti-Establishment kind of a guy, so I apologise for this quirk to u all.... So, head's up.... Have a good match and let's make 200 runs tomorrow.... This 150 seems to not work any more.... We have nothing to lose now, except our character.... Let's not lose that.... Lov... SRK."

Playing down differences between him and Saurav, he said that such things hit one at the time of failures. "Also, do ignore all this bit about Dada, me and John having issues.... It's a normal thing in the world.... People like to hit you when u r down.... So, we will be hit.... No stress.... It will make us stronger.... The only way to avoid this is to win.... That's one of the reasons why everybody likes to be a winner...."

Appealing to his team to be united, he wrote: "On the other hand, the beauty of failure is that it brings people together.... So, let's stick this out together.... You know me well enuff to know I am not the kind of owner who has issues with the team 'cos of losses... I am too much of a sport myself to get beaten by defeats.... Like you guys are.... Like Dada and John...."

Expressing his frustration and anger at his team's dismal performance in the last few matches, which brought Knight Riders down in the tally, he said in his SMS: "Story time boys... I told you if you keep losing you have to bear with my long, boring msgs.... This is your punishment."

Drawing a parallel between his team's failure and his flopped movies, he wrote: "I enjoy the work.... I make jokes about the failure.... And, of course, feel awful about it too.... So, right now, all of us have become part of a failed script... A bad IPL script.... Let's try and keep our characters worthy of still looking back at this story and remembering it as a special story becos we all worked very hard at this...."

He added: "So, chin up and don't spoil yr character in the next two games.... Let's go out with a bang and not a whimper.... In films, we say u r only as good as yr last film.... So let's make the whole world know how good we r in the last (maybe not) two games..."

ANI