However, Rajasthan Royals skipper Rahul Dravid dropped a bombshell on Wednesday just before the match against Mumbai Indians, when he announced that medium-pacer Sreesanth had been left out and spinner Ankit Chavan drafted in for the game. The official reason was "work overload".
Sreesanth had bowled well in Royals' last game, taking 2-20 off his four overs against Kings XI, so the decision to drop him was surprising.
A Royals official, however, told TOI that the decision was taken after looking at the wicket. "It looked like a slow wicket and our team think-tank felt we should go in with more spinners," he said. Sreesanth had, incidentally, skipped the optional practice session on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he was not seen on the ground before the match or in the Royals dugout.
With Sreesanth calling Harbhajan a backstabber, this meeting between the two players was being looked upon as a juicy sideshow. Was Sreesanth left out to avoid this confrontation? "That wasn't the issue at all," the Royals official told TOI. "We never felt that there would be any confrontation here."
The Royals management had steered clear of the controversy, not making any comments after the tweets. "It doesn't concern us as Sreesanth was not with us when the incident happened," the official said. Under Dravid, Royals have tried to stay away from controversies. Although there was no directive from the BCCI, Royals could well have taken the initiative to avoid even the slimmest chance of a flare-up.
"Sreesanth did play in the last match (against Kings XI Punjab) after his tweets," the official said. "If we had to leave him out for his tweets, we would have done it then." Of course, Harbhajan wasn't playing in that match.
The two teams meet again in Mumbai on May 15.
0 comments:
Post a Comment