Knight Riders to meet with PM

Bridgetown, Barbados

Officials of the Trinbago Knight Riders will meet with Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley today to discuss the upcoming Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) T20 tournament. CEO of Red Chillies Entertainment, the owners of the Trinbago Knight Riders, Venky Mysore told Guardian Media yesterday that he will be meeting with the Prime Minister and Minister of Sport Daryl Smith.  

Mysore said: “What we want to do at the Knight Riders is to build a closer relationship with the Government and this meeting is critical. Last year, when I came to the Caribbean, I told everyone that I am like a sponge and just soaking up everything. Now that I have been around for a while and understand the environment in which you operate in the Caribbean, it is a good time to meet the prime minister to discuss a positive way forward.

“Back in Kolkata we have a very close relationship with the government because they understand that the Knight Riders management is bringing a win-win situation to them all the time,”

He added: “We want to introduce to the Prime Minister to the endless opportunities that the relationship with us brings. Trinidad and Tobago can tap into a base of 1.4 billion people back in India. The Knight Riders have a huge following back in India and of course owner Shah Rukh Khan has worldwide appeal and it presents a great opportunity for the people of T&T.

“We will discuss this among other things with the Prime Minister. You see India has a strong growing middle class that likes to and can afford to go to exotic places and T&T presents that for them.”

Red Chillies, who are also the owners of the Kolkata Knight Riders bought the T&T Red Steel last year and has changed the name to Trinbago Knight Riders. 

Today, at 2 pm at the Hyatt Regency in Trinidad, Mysore and other officials of CPL will host a press conference to officially unveil the logo. The logo looks similar to the Kolkata Knight Riders with the purple and gold colours, however Mysore says the clothing will remain in the national colours.

He said: “We are looking to continue to build our already strong Knight Riders brand and for us the logo is critical. The red, white and black clothing will remain because when I showed up at the Queen’s Park Oval for the finals last year and saw a sea of red, it told me that the people of the country loved their colours and it is red.”