SRK's Knight Riders send five players packing

KHAN MARKET: While some say Shah Rukh is cutting costs, others see the move as corporatisation of cricket.

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New Delhi: The Kolkata IPL team has decided to release five of its contracted players — Ranadeb Bose, Sourashish Lahiri, Rohan Banerjee, Cheteshwar Pujara and Yashpal Singh by Sunday.

According to the team management, coach John Buchanan has decided that the players who have not played in the Indian Premier League (IPL) till date will be released, since they have little chance of playing in the remaining six matches.

Buchanan, it was learnt, now wants to concentrate on the 16 players who have played in the IPL.

The five contracted players, however, will not have to forfeit from their contracted amounts.

KKR owner Shah Rukh Khan has sought to downplay controversy and says the decision is good for the players. "You need to construct the team with lesser amount of people and continue with it because it's just delaying matters," he said.

Bose was taken aback when he spoke to CNN-IBN about his release. "I'm disappointed. Obviously, it came to me as a surprise because I wasn't expecting something like this. But you have got to accept what they decide."

The tall medium-pacer, who was on India's tour to England last summer, also lamented not being given enough opportunities by his Kolkata team, which is led by his Bengal teammate Sourav Ganguly.

"I wasn't travelling with the side, we didn't have good practice sessions or gym sessions. So I thought it was better that I go back home and start playing cricket for my club and also do some training. But I never said that I'm happy, obviously I'm not. I'm highly disappointed. And secondly, I never, ever went up to anybody and asked for a release. I have never done that. So I was obviously surprised," Bose added.

Kolkata's team director Joy Bhattacharya, however, clarified that the decision was solely taken by coach John Buchanan and it had nothing to do with cost-cutting, nor circumstances similar to what the Bangalore franchise has been facing.

“It had nothing to do with anything else. Since these are the players John felt that this year have no realistic chance of playing. So the whole issue was that he thought it was unfair to keep them here, practising in this heat when we know that this year they don't have a chance of playing in the tournament," Bhattacharya told CNN-IBN.

"So we decided to have a chat with them and said, 'Look, you are free to stay till Sunday, your contract will obviously be honoured, but you don't have a realistic chance of playing this year.' And John is giving all of them a full report saying that these are the areas of improvement that is expected and hope they will all be back making a place for themselves next year.

He also clarified that there were no conflicts of interest within the team members. However, of the players who haven't featured in any of the games Kolkata have playe so far, Iqbal Abdulla, the Indian Under-19 spinner, has been asked to stay, contrary to the five other members.

"The boys will take it fine. If you see our team spirit from player one to player 23, even when Shah Rukh (the owner) is giving gifts to players, every player in the squad has got it. If Sourav Ganguly has got it, the 23rd member of the squad has also got it, and we have stuck by those principles," Bhattacharya explains.

"The basic issue out here is it's unfair on the players. They have very crowded domestic seasons. Sitting here in a hotel, they are practising, but they are not going to play. So it's more for the players' sake. So we said, 'The expsense involved with you and me is minimal. So we are not trying to save any expense out here, it hardly makes a difference to our lives."