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According to unconfirmed reports, after dropping "Kolkata" from Indian Premier League team Kolkata Knight Riders, actor Shah Rukh Khan has started discussions with Nokia, Sahara, the Anil Ambani group, and several other companies to sell the team he bought just over a year ago for Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion), and exit the business.

According to sources in Red Chillies Entertainment, KKR's holding company, "Shah Rukh Khan has been trying to sell a stake in KKR for some time now. But since most companies he approached also wanted management control, Khan is now talking to Nokia, Sahara, Anil Ambani and others to sell his entire shareholding."

Khan's public relations officer, however, said she would not be able to confirm the development because she had not met the actor.

None of those who have reportedly been approached confirmed the development. Sahara India's communications director Abhijit Sarkar said: "We have not been approached by Shah Rukh Khan yet. But if he does, we would be happy to buy the team."

D Shivakumar, vice-president and managing director (markets), Nokia India, sent a text message saying: "Shah Rukh Khan will keep the team."

A Reliance Communications spokesperson declined to comment. "A lot of people negotiate with Anil Ambani. I cannot comment unless there is something concrete on table."

According to the Red Chillies official, Khan wants to exit, owing to the team's poor performance - so far the team has won only one rain-curtailed game under the Duckworth Lewis method - and rising costs.

"If the Board for Control of Cricket in India does not increase the number of teams for next year, Khan could get double what he paid," said the Red Chillies official.

Khan is supposed to pay Rs 30 crore (Rs 300 million) per year for the next 10 years. The total annual cost for the team is about Rs 75 crore (Rs 750 million).

Khan had earlier said that KKR was easily the most successful IPL franchise, making a Rs 13 crore (Rs 130 million) profit last year. However, his costs trebled last year owing to interventions from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and Cricket Association of Bengal.

According to initial calculations, Red Chillies had to pay Rs 90 lakhs (Rs 9 million) per match and was supposed to earn Rs 3 crore if all stadium tickets were sold at Eden Gardens. Red Chillies had to pay Rs 20 lakhs (Rs 2 million) to the police and municipal tax of Rs 500,000. So its expenses per match would have been over Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million). But this figure had trebled.

Last year, however, Kolkata Police demanded Rs 2 crore as security fees, against Rs 50 lakhs (Rs 5 million) that the organisers of the IPL offered. Then, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation demanded Rs 25 lakhs (Rs 2.5 million) from Red Chillies as amusement tax for holding IPL matches at Eden Gardens.

To settle the dispute between Kolkata Police and the IPL organisers over the cost of security arrangements at Eden Gardens, Red Chillies Entertainment had to agree to pay Rs 75 lakhs (Rs 7.5 million) as security fees.

About 5,500 uniformed personnel and about 1,500 sleuths were deployed to secure the stadium and its surrounding areas, since many celebrities were expected to watch the IPL matches at Eden Gardens.

Big Picture

Kings XI Punjab are running hot. They have won their last three games and are favourites against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Punjab lost a few big names like Brett Lee and Shaun Marsh ahead of the tournament but have brilliantly gelled together as a team. Even relatively unknown names like Yusuf Abdulla, who was drafted in to cover for the injured Jerome Taylor, have stood up to be counted.

With spin increasingly proving to be effective on dry pitches, they will be relying heavily on Piyush Chawla and Ramesh Powar. Irfan Pathan has also hit a purple patch and VRV Singh turned in a frugal spell in the last game that he played. They have successfully defended two low scores in a row but will be hoping for a tall score if they bat first against Bangalore.

Bangalore have been struggling after a bright start but gave themselves some breathing space with the win against Kolkata in the last game. They will have a new captain - Jacques Kallis is the the frontrunner - and while the bowling hasn't been bad, the batting has let them down. Five first-ball dismissals and three second-ball dismissals - a rare occurrence in cricket - have meant the batting has never got going and they have been always trying to repair the faulty start. They went in with Shreevats Goswami as an opener in the last game and finally, found some momentum. Anil Kumble has been in top form and they have drafted in KP Appanna and Roelof van der Merwe to bolster the spin. Suffice to say, it won't be a walkover for Punjab.

Form guide

Delhi: Pathan and Abdulla have worked wonderfully so far and have been successful in knocking down early wickets. Irfan does the job with the new ball while they have tended to use Abdulla, who has a good yorker at the death.

Bangalore: Despite being out of action, Anil Kumble has been miserly as ever and the opposition batsmen have been trying to play out his quota of overs. van der Merwe had a good outing with the ball in the last game and though he is agricultural in his batting, he can turn in an innings that could make a difference.

Watch out for

Kumble v Yuvraj: Last time they faced, Yuvraj gave plenty of respect to Kumble, preferring to not to take any risks. Watch out for Kumble tempting Yuvraj with his googlies. Last time, the situation allowed Yuvraj to play out Kumble; tomorrow it might require him to take a few risks. The contest should be very interesting.

Team news

For Punjab, the management is considering bringing in Simon Katich for Ravi Bopara though Tom Moody added that Luke Pomersbach too is in contention. "Katich has been middling the ball really well but if we feel we need a bit of fire at the top, Luke can come in," Moody said.

Punjab: (probable) 1 Karan Goel, 2 Simon Katich, 3 Yuvraj Singh (capt), 4 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 5 Mahela Jayawardene, 6 Irfan Pathan, 7 Taruwar Kohli, 8 Piyush Chawla, 9 Vikramjeet Malik, 10 Ramesh Powar, 11 Yusuf Abdulla.

The choice of captain will be the dominating issue for Bangalore with Jacques Kallis the frontrunner for the position.

Bangalore: (probable) 1 Sreevats Goswami, 2 Jacques Kallis (capt), 3 Ross Taylor, 4 Robin Uthappa, 5 Virat Kohli, 6 Mark Boucher (wk), 7 Roelof van der Merwe, 8 Praveen Kumar, 9 R Vinay Kumar, 10 Anil Kumble, 11 KP Appanna

Head-to-head record

Punjab won by seven wickets in the last match at Durban, but it was a tight game and gave them their first win of the tournament. It came down to the final overs where Yuvraj Singh and Ravi Bopara showed immense maturity to select the bowlers to be attacked and executing their plan to a T. In 2008, Punjab were one of the teams to beat in the league phase while Bangalore were dismal right through the tournament. Punjab posted easy wins both the times they came up against Bangalore last season.

In a demonstration of power-hitting with which he carried Chennai Super Kings in the first IPL, Suresh Raina again showed his ability to dominate and, when the need arose, get out of a jam. Chennai were in early trouble after being put in to bat but the early loss of the openers to Shane Warne's introduction of spin didn't deter Raina, who dispatched the Rajasthan Royals attack to all parts of SuperSport Park. His one-man show was complemented by a disciplined and enthusiastic fielding display - including a wicket and two catches to the man of the moment - and Chennai wrapped up victory by 38 runs.

The spade work for victory had been done with a gem from Raina. His blazing innings started and ended in the face of adversary but it didn't show on his face or in his choice of shots. Chennai had lost their leading run-scorer, Matthew Hayden, and Parthiv Patel to loose shots against Yusuf Pathan, who opened the attack with Dimitri Mascarenhas. But after that edgy start Chennai were put back on track through a 67-run liaison between Raina and S Badrinath. Raina was due a good score and he decided attack was the best way of defence.

He took the initiative early on, taking Mascarenhas for four and six and then clubbing Yusuf over long-off for six more. Badrinath was promoted ahead of MS Dhoni, Jacob Oram and Albie Morkel with Chennai in trouble and he reciprocated with a smart cameo of 29. He relieved the pressure with three off-side boundaries and hit Yusuf out of the attack. Badri's inventiveness - making room, getting the wrists into play, lofting over the infield - allowed Raina to continue blazing and he carved a brilliant front-foot six over point off Munaf Patel's first delivery.

Once he found his tempo, Raina was unstoppable. A deft tickle for four off Siddharth Trivedi was one for the purists, a thick inside-edge next ball for the same result just the bit of luck Raina needed to script an epic. He continued to produce punishing pulls and gorgeous shots down the ground, but the slice over cover-point was the sight of the evening. Shane Warne was pulled and cut for boundaries in his first over as Raina reached fifty from 27 balls.

By now the mood in both camps had reversed. Rajasthan's early momentum faded into repeated misfields that allowed boundaries, and where Chennai had been unsure with the bat at the start, Badrinath was uppercutting for four. There were risks, but they were calculated. The fifty-run partnership needed just 33 deliveries.

Rajasthan took two wickets shortly after the break but with Dhoni giving him strike, Raina broke the shackles with consecutive boundaries in the 17th over. The run rate had now crossed seven and increased with consecutive sixes, both sliced over covers, in a 24-run 18th over during which Kamran Khan had to limp off with a twisted ankle. In the last over Raina raised his bat on 98, when the electronic scoreboard got it wrong after he slapped four past cover. Next ball was slashed up in the air and excellently taken by Graeme Smith at deep backward point. The only batsmen to cross 30, Raina's exemplary 98 off 55 balls lifted Chennai to a competitive total.

That innings not only gave the crowd something to cheer about but also gave Chennai's bowlers a solid platform to work with. A revamped new-ball attack of Morkel and Sudeep Tyagi kept it tidy and waited for errors, which came rather soon. Smith's vigilance had played a big role in the last game but here he was impetuous, reaching out and guiding Morkel to point in the second over. Swapnil Asnodkar was another to fall going for a big shot, except that he swung his bat down onto his own stumps.

As if his innings wasn't torture enough for Rajasthan, Raina starred with the ball. Rob Quiney was given a life when Dhoni fluffed a stumping, but the bowler had his revenge when he beat bat with a slider.

Yusuf came out blazing but failed to convert, lofting L Balaji down to long-off where the man who could do no wrong took the catch. Dhoni held back on using Balaji till the 11th over and the bowler immediately made an impact, not allowing any room. When Ravindra Jadeja skied Balaji miles into the starry night and Hayden settled under a steepler, the candle had gone out. The rest was a formality as Balaji took four, a solid comeback after a poor last match.

It was apt that the last wicket, a massive top edge, should land in Raina's hands. His grip remained firm from start to finish.