No Dada No KKR

No Dada No KKR
Abbreviation NDNKKR
Motto Raising a Voice against injustice.
Type Protest group
Purpose Protest against exclusion of Sourav Ganguly from Kolkata Knight Riders
Headquarters Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Volunteers
 more than 9500 members in facebook group and still continuing

No Dada No KKR (or NDNKKR) is a protest group formed after Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), a Kolkata based franchise in the Indian Premier League (IPL), did not bid for Former Indian Cricket Captain Sourav Ganguly (Dada) during the IPL auctions. Ganguly was the fourth highest run scorer in the previous edition of IPL. He was rejected by KKR as well as all other franchises in the auction, leading to a Facebook protest from his fans. The protesters also went on to the streets of Kolkata for the protest. This was followed by a silent protest rally, signature campaigns throughout the country and abroad, a leaflet campaign, and stadium protests. NDNKKR and the campaigns both received national and international press attention. KKR's opening match had drastically lower attendance, and attendance during the rest of the season was also below full capacity.

Background

The No Dada No KKR protest group formed after Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), a Kolkata-based franchise in the Indian Premier League (IPL), did not bid for ex-India captain Sourav Ganguly (Dada) during the IPL auctions.[1] In the previous IPL, Ganguly had been the fourth highest run scorer.[2] The player won strong support from fans and a community was set up on the social networking site Facebook to support Ganguly.[3]

Protest March

Following Ganguly's rejection, fans created a protest group on Facebook.[3] The group organized a silent protest rally in Kolkata on 16 January 2011, from Victoria Memorial to Eden Gardens, as a show of solidarity with Ganguly and to protest against KKR.[4] Prior to the rally, the group had 2500 members and was to be joined by another group from Orkut named "No Ganguly…No Eden".[5] The movement was covered by local and national media with journalists including Gautam Bhattacharya supporting the movement.[6]

Signature campaign

On 17 January, NDNKKR launched a campaign with the aim of sending signatures from across the country to BCCI, demanding inclusion of Ganguly in IPL. Members from all over the country joined in. The signatures were accumulated, printed and sent to BCCI headquarters on February 2. BCCI called a General Council meeting on 4 February to discuss the re-inclusion of Sourav Ganguly in IPL 4,[7] Teams like Kochi Tuskers expressed interest in taking Ganguly in the team. BCCI announced that such a move would require an NOC from all teams.[7] Initial reports suggested that KKR was unwilling to give the desired NOC. Ultimately the meeting ended with three IPL teams opposing Ganguly's inclusion on technical grounds.[8]

Leaflet campaign

Just prior to launch of IPL, NDNKKR launched its leaflet campaign. 100,000 leaflets were printed and distributed across the city and its suburbs, along with the morning newspapers, asking people to boycott KKR.[9] The campaign was covered by local vernacular dailies like Aajkal. Without Ganguly, KKR got a poor response, with Eden Gardens recording a poor turnout.[10] This was followed up with an SMS campaign.[11] 600,000 SMS were sent out to people in Kolkata asking them to boycott KKR and IPL without Ganguly. This led to efforts made by KKR and its owner Sharukh Khan to counter NDNKKR with their own SMS campaigns.

Consequences of the campaigns

On the very first match that KKR played in its home ground, Eden Gardens, the stadium was more than half empty. Estimates pegged the footfall at 20,000 in a ground with a capacity of close to 70,000. This led to KKR management drastically reducing ticket prices for all following matches.[10] KKR put up banners and advertisements all over Kolkata requesting people to come to Eden and cheer for the home team.

Stadium protests

With IPL reaching almost mid-season and no signs of Ganguly’s imminent comeback, NDNKKR began the "enter Eden campaign". A group of 30 members entered Eden Gardens with "No Dada No KKR" banners and posters. Within a couple of days of the start of the Enter Eden campaign, Ganguly was back in IPL, playing for Pune Warrios India, as a substitute for injured Ashish Nehra.[12]

On 19 May 2011, Dada played against his erstwhile team KKR at D. Y. Patil stadium in Mumbai. NDNKKR arranged for a joint Mumbai-Pune campaign, wherein about 50 members from Mumbai and Pune reached D. Y. Patil stadium with the NDNKKR banner. A bus was arranged from Pune, to take the members, while those from Mumbai came in cars.

Future plans

On Ganguly’s birthday on 8 July 2011, NDNKKR undertook a programme to help small children at an orphanage in Chennai.[13] It was a step forward to getting involved with social causes. It was carried out in an orphanage ‘Udavum Ullangal’ situated 40 km from Chennai. Apart from the customary cake cutting, the kids celebrated with sweets and snacks. Educational kits and books were also distributed among all the kids. NDNKKR aims to get involved in more such social causes in the future. The journey of NDNKKR over an year has been documented in a book No Dada No KKR- The Return of Hope, compiled by Dr. Sayak Bhattacharya which was released on 10 January 2012 on the first anniversary of the group's founding.

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ PTI, Jan 9, 2011, 07.15PM IST (2011-01-09). "IPL auction, Day 2: Ganguly remains unsold, unknown Christian clinches huge deal, Times of India". Timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
  2. ↑ "IPL 2010 Leading Run Scorers". Cricket Xtra. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
  3. 1 2 Pti (2011-01-14). "Facebook Login | Sourav Ganguly | KKR | IPL Auctions | Protest West Bengal". News.oneindia.in. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
  4. ↑ "Facebook's Ganguly fans plan protest march - Times Of India". Articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 2011-01-14. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
  5. ↑ "Kolkata to walk for Sourav Ganguly | Cricket, World Snap News". News.worldsnap.com. 2011-01-16. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
  6. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/groups/nodadanokkr2011/members/?order=default&query=gautam%20bhattacharya
  7. 1 2 "BCCI puts pressure to take back Dada?- TIMESNOW.tv - Latest Breaking News, Big News Stories, News Videos". Timesnow.Tv. 2011-01-21. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
  8. ↑ Sumit Mukherjee, TNN, Feb 3, 2011, 10.47PM IST (2011-02-03). "Ganguly's Kochi dream soured by objections, Times of India". Timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
  9. ↑ Cricket (2011-04-14). "IPL: Fans Make ‘No Dada, No KKR’ Campaign a Success". SportsKeeda. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
  10. 1 2 "Without Ganguly, Eden gets poor response | News | NDTVSports.com". Sports.ndtv.com. 2011-04-12. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
  11. ↑ "Dada fans still hope of his return". Indian Express. 2011-04-28. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
  12. ↑ "Ganguly makes comeback in IPL, to play for Pune- TIMESNOW.tv - Latest Breaking News, Big News Stories, News Videos". Timesnow.Tv. 2011-05-03. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
  13. ↑ Cricket. "Sourav’s fans bring smile on the faces of Chennai kids". SportsKeeda. Retrieved 2012-02-01.

External links

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