India’s stalwart batter, Shubhman Gill, is one of the best cricketers in recent times. This season too, he is in excellent form. Gill has scored 333 runs in IPL2023 so far. In this case, he is jointly at number five with Virat Kohli.
Shubman Gill, Piyush Chawla, Ajinkya Rahane and Kuldeep Yadav. One of those players played brightly after being separated from Kolkata Knight Riders. Fans must have felt that KKR would be sorry to lose him. But KKR’s Managing Director and CEO Venky Mysore has clarified that there is nothing like this.
Venky Mysore, the CEO of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), recently spoke about the challenges of player retention in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and how the team has had to make difficult decisions in the past.
Mysore mentioned Shubman Gill as an example of a player who was developed by KKR but ended up playing for another franchise.
“There is happiness when we see some of the players we have developed go to other franchises and do well. Shubman Gill is an example of the limitation, as you know, the rules the IPL and BCCI make. In the 2022 auction, we were allowed to keep only four players. There are always eight or nine whom we would like to keep. You had to select four out of those,” Mysore told reporters.
Gill, who made his IPL debut with KKR in 2018, was traded to Punjab Kings ahead of IPL 2021 and has since become a key player for his new team.
“It’s never a regret, and the decisions were made based on the information available at that point. We believe those were the right decisions, but losing some players is always tough,” he added.
Mysore acknowledged that the rules set by the IPL and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) limit the team’s ability to retain players. In the 2022 auction, KKR was only allowed to keep four players, which meant they had to let go of several players they would have liked to keep.
Despite the challenges, Mysore stated there is a sense of happiness when they see players they have developed doing well for other franchises. He also mentioned that there is always a debate among the team management about which players to retain, as there are always more players they would like to keep than the number allowed by the rules.
Overall, player retention is a major challenge for IPL teams, as they have to balance their desire to keep their best players with the limitations set by the league and the BCCI. While it can be difficult to see talented players leave the team, teams like KKR take pride in the fact that they have helped to develop these players and contributed to their success in the IPL.
