Shah Rukh not to perform at Tuesday's IPL match

Kolkata: Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who owns the Kolkata Knight Riders, will not be performing at his team's second home match Tuesday against Mumbai Indians at Eden Gardens here.
The performance has been postponed for unavoidable circumstances, co-owner Jay Mehta, on behalf of Shah Rukh, told reporters Saturday evening."But SRK will be present at the grounds Tuesday. And if every thing goes fine he may perform at the third home match on May 8," he said.Cricket Association Of Bengal (CAB) president Prasun Mukherjee told IANS: "Red Chillies wants the dais to be dismantled. But we have not been told why Shah Rukh has refused to perform here."The cancellation of the show will, however, result in more tickets for the public."Once we remove the 48ftx40ft stage from the ground 6,000 more seats will be made available to the people," Mukherjee said.CAB officials said once the dais is removed, tickets for 4,000 seats at J-block and 2,000 seats at H, I and K blocks in the gallery will be on sale.Ticket sales for the match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians started Thursday morning at CAB ticket counters here.And from the very first day, there was unrest among people over the scarcity of tickets.CAB joint secretary Amitabha Bandopadyay told IANS: "Almost 70 percent of the tickets were sold out within a few hours Thursday itself - after all Kolkata is going to witness Sourav Ganguly batting against Sachin Tendulkar for the first time."Since Thursday, disappointed cricket-lovers have been staging demonstrations in front of the counters, accusing CAB and Red Chillies for black-marketing tickets.