Sparsely occupied stands at Eden Gardens at 8.46pm on Tuesday. The turnout in the overcast evening ranged between 50,000 and 60,000 — the lowest in Calcutta since the IPL season started. On Sunday, when a storm lashed the city, the Eden had a capacity 80,000-plus crowd. Picture by Pabitra Das

May 20: The Kolkata Knight Riders suffered another defeat, the third in a row, to almost push themselves out of the hunt for a last-four berth, and the recurrence of a knee problem kept Shoaib Akhtar away from tonight’s clash against the Rajasthan Royals.

But the royal letdown (and definitely the much bigger news really) was the absence of the Knight Riders’ owner, Shah Rukh Khan, for the first time in a home match of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

According to The Telegraph’s sources, Shah Rukh sent text messages to coach John Buchanan and Co. saying he wasn’t coming to Calcutta and the Eden.

Shah Rukh, however, gave no reason and (understandably) his silence triggered much speculation.

Different people gave different reasons for Shah Rukh’s absence and that only added to the confusion.

A very prominent member of the franchise, for example, said Shah Rukh was “feeling feverish” and, so, decided not to come.

“Shah Rukh’s been travelling a lot in recent weeks and isn’t well.… But, believe me, he’s going to be present at the Eden on Sunday (for the last league-stage match, versus Preity Zinta’s Kings XI Punjab).”

Shah Rukh’s film co-ordinator Subhas Jain, though, gave an entirely different story from Mumbai.

“Shooting has been scheduled from 7pm till 6am tomorrow…. The same schedule had been followed yesterday.”

The film in question, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, is being directed by Aditya Chopra and is from the top-of-the-line Yash Raj Films’ stable.

However, even before the IPL began, Shah Rukh had told this reporter that he’d “adjusted” dates for film and TV shoots in a manner which would allow him to attend all seven of the Knight Riders’ home matches.

Obviously, then, two factors could’ve forced a change in plan — for tonight, at least.

First, the unnecessary embarrassment caused by Niranjan Singh Virk’s act of barring him from the dressing room and the dugout at the Eden on Sunday.

Virk is the regional head of the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit of the International Cricket Council (ICC) and had come to oversee arrangements during the Knight Riders-Chennai Super Kings face-off.

The IPL isn’t an ICC tournament, but is being run with the world body’s Code of Conduct and protocol in operation.

In a turnaround, the IPL chairman and commissioner, Lalit Modi, today accepted that Virk had been wrong in curtailing Shah Rukh’s movements.

“There is no controversy.… Shah Rukh shouldn’t have been stopped. The Telegraph has carried the picture of players and officials who should be allowed entry into the dressing room. Shah Rukh features among them…. So you can’t deny him access,” Modi explained this afternoon.

That came too late, though.

Second, Shah Rukh may have felt drained after watching two losses in a row — at the Eden and at the Wankhede, defeats which turned the heat back on the Knight Riders in a big way.

Actually, it’s just as well that Shah Rukh stayed back in Mumbai, or else he would’ve witnessed a dubious hat-trick. Tonight’s loss was by six wickets.

The franchise (co-owned by Jay and Juhi Mehta), clearly, has plenty to do.