“We want Dada” was the roar from fans that prompted Sourav Ganguly to walk over and sign autographs for members of The Knight Club. (Aranya Sen)

Eleven-year-old Milind Jain lost his T-shirt at the Eden Gardens on Sunday evening. He still has it but he can’t wear it anymore. Why? The little white tee is now decorated with autographs of Sourav Ganguly and Wasim Akram.

“I will never wash it again and so I cannot wear it,” smiled the Class V student of Delhi Public School, Ruby Park.

Milind’s was not the only dream fulfilled on the last practice day of the Kolkata Knight Riders in Calcutta before the battle for IPL 3 begins on Friday. For the 150-odd Knight Club members — almost all boys — who came to catch the KKR boys in action, it was a couple of hours of exclusive entertainment.

The Knight Club is KKR boss Shah Rukh Khan’s fledgling dream of having an official fan following for his team “just like Manchester United”. Membership to the club — Rs 550 per person — was thrown open during the India-South Africa Test match at the Eden and already more than 1,100 KKR fans have signed up.

Every Knight Club member gets a special bag of goodies containing KKR merchandise like T-shirt, sling bag, wrist band, key chain besides a unique membership number. “They will also get special privileges every now and then starting with this access to the practice session,” said Jeet Banerjee of Team KKR. “We are planning to give members discounts and even free tickets.”

Tickets for the first two KKR home matches — on March 14 and March 16 — have been selling faster than Ishant Sharma is bowling these days. This time there are only around 45,000 seats and the lower denomination tickets — Rs 300, Rs 400 and Rs 500 — have been all but sold out, confirmed a source.

The first to come over and sign a few autographs for the Knight Club members were Brad Hodge, Owais Shah and Murali Karthik.

Someone shouted “Karthik calling Karthik” to draw the attention of the left-arm spinner. Another called out “idhar aaiye” to Owais Shah only to quickly translate it to “come here”, realising that the man bats for England.

The occasional shouts turned into a full-throated roar when two left-arm greats, one with the ball and the other with the bat, strode out.

The fan cry aimed at Akram and Sourav? “We want the cup this time!”