But India’s most accomplished captain Sourav Ganguly has an entirely new task on his hands these days — providing expert opinion on budding cheerleaders and selecting them for his IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders.

In an interesting move, Shah Rukh Khan, the owner of Knight Riders, has decided to assign Ganguly the task of judging and picking the right cheerleaders from a nationwide pool of enthusiasts, who will be auditioning ahead of the next edition of the Twenty20 carnival.

With the second chapter of the two-month IPL championship slated to begin on April 10, the coming weeks will see Ganguly shuttling between cities to take part in various auditions for cheerleaders, all in the role of the project’s permanent judge. The surprise revelation came from Bollywood star Juhi Chawla, who jointly owns the Knight Riders with her businessman husband Jai Mehta and Shah Rukh.

"Sourav will be a permanent judge. We are focusing hard again, particularly on hosting a separate audition for cheerleaders," said Juhi on the sidelines of a programme here. "We will try to rope in other experts as well for judging the episodes that we will have across a number of cities. We have Shyamak Davar in mind, and of course, I will be present at the auditions."

Juhi outlined the Knight Riders' elaborate plans for selecting a final team of cheerleaders, given last summer's controversy surrounding coloured members of the cheerleader-troupe of Kings XI Punjab. "There has never been any controversy surrounding the cheerleaders of the Knight Riders, isn't it?" she pointed out. "Rest assured, there will be no problems with the Knight Riders cheerleaders. The girls will all be properly dressed at the matches and they will be seen sporting the team jersey and logo."

With Shah Rukh's initiative, the cheerleader programme won't be restricted to just the participants and the team officials. All episodes of the audition will recorded and beamed into our TV rooms as the Kolkata franchisee has tied up with a popular national TV news channel.

Much of the focus will be on Ganguly, though, for whom judging the dancing skills of cheerleaders at a reality show will be a whole new chapter in his life. The Knight Riders skipper, however, couldn't be contacted for his comment on the new job.

The idea of roping in cheerleaders drew a lot of criticism during last summer's inaugural edition of the IPL after a controversy rocked the Preity Zinta-Ness Wadia owned Punjab team. A couple of coloured members of their cheerleading unit staged a walkout midway into the tournament after they alleged that they were mocked at by a section of the franchisee's organisers.