Amid KKR's IPL 2024 win, Shah Rukh Khan talked about KKR team meetings and his relationship with Gautam Gambhir.
Shah Rukh Khan is basking in the success of his team, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), which lifted the IPL trophy by beating Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). After the big win, Shah Rukh Khan spoke to Star Sports, and shared some interesting anecdotes from the dressing room. He even talked about his long-standing dream of becoming a sportsman, and how he ended up acting instead.
SRK said, “I always wanted to be a sportsman. I never wanted to be an actor, to be honest. But then I got hurt while playing and didn’t have the money to get treated, so I had to give up. I used to keep wickets. At that time in India, the chances for a sports career were also less, but I always wanted to have something to do with sports.”
Interestingly, out of 14 IPL tournaments, KKR has won three titles. Revealing how critics’ comments on KKR’s failures affected him, the actor asserted, “We have the nicest team. We kept losing repeatedly. The saddest moment was when someone told me, ‘Only their costume is good, their gameplay isn’t.’ I remember some expert commenting on this, and it used to hurt. For Gautam Gambhir to come back and achieve this is outstanding. It taught us how to lose but never be losers and never give up hope, and sports teaches you that.”
He further praised Gautam Gambhir, who served as KKR’s mentor in the latest season, and said, “We have a rule: whenever I go to team meetings, the discussion is always that everyone will play however they want, but this time let’s make Gautam dance. He has been kind. Out of the three times we have been together, he has come twice. But that was a day match, and the matches were in the morning, but we will get there.”
Shah Rukh Khan reiterated that there’s a sense of camaraderie with other IPL team owners, and how they talk with each other about our losses and wins. “There are one or two team owner with whom we don’t do this. they take it personally. Most of us old owners we talk to each other and discuss whether it was a good day or a bad day.”
The actor recently had a heat stroke and was admitted to an Ahmedabad hospital before the IPL final match. After getting fit, he attended KKR’s final IPL match.