A Bollywood star's cricket franchise became the Caribbean league's most successful team
In 2015 a company led by Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan bought into Trinidad's Caribbean Premier League side. It was the first time an Indian Premier League owner had invested in a Twenty20 league abroad, and the team won the title that very season. Renamed the Trinbago Knight Riders, it has since collected five championships, more than any rival.
The side began in 2013 as the Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel, one of six founding teams in the Caribbean Premier League. In 2015 Red Chillies Entertainment, headed by Khan, joined with the Mehta Group of businessman Jay Mehta and his wife, actress Juhi Chawla, to buy a stake. That year the Red Steel claimed their first title on home turf, winning the final by 20 runs against the Barbados Tridents.
The owners already ran the Kolkata Knight Riders in India, and in 2016 they took over all operations and rebranded the Trinidad team to carry the Knight Riders name overseas. Dwayne Bravo led a largely unchanged squad, with New Zealand's Brendon McCullum, a former Kolkata player, as the marquee overseas signing. Several players, including Chris Lynn, Colin Munro and Darren Bravo, have turned out for both Knight Riders franchises, and as of 2026 Sunil Narine is the only one doing so. Simon Katich took over as head coach in 2017.
Further titles followed in 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2025. Colin Munro is the franchise's all-time leading run-scorer, and Dwayne Bravo, its top wicket-taker, became head coach from the 2025 season. The same ownership group also fields a women's team in the Women's Caribbean Premier League.
Home is Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain, one of the oldest and most storied grounds in the Caribbean and one of its largest, seating around 20,000. It has belonged to the Queen's Park Cricket Club since 1896, staged Test cricket since 1930, one-day internationals since 1983 and Twenty20 internationals since 2009, and hosted the league's semi-finals and finals in 2013 and 2015.
Source: Trinbago Knight Riders
