NEW DLEHI: Royal Challengers' skipper Rahul Dravid acknowledges criticism by team owner Vijay Mallya is warranted. The Royal Challengers are not exactly a happy bunch what with a string of losses, a new CEO and a disgruntled boss. Rahul Dravid has sought redemption after team owner Vijay Mallya made some strong comments on the team selection.
Mallya's franchise house promised action, drama and a lot of entertainment and who couldn't believe India's most glamorous business tycoon especially after he tied up with the 'academician' cricketer Rahul Dravid.
But just about half-way through, with just two wins scraped out of eight matches played, the franchise house is starting to ripple with undercurrents.
After the CEO was shown the door Mallya's silence finally broke and, with characteristic forthrightness Mallya blew the lid off questions on Rahul Dravid's judgement over the team selected, distancing himself from the team think tank.
"I had a separate list of players that I wanted. But since Dravid is such an iconic player I trusted his judgement. After seeing the final list, my friends told me it looked like a Test team," said Mallya.
Mallya's outburst was undoubtedly in the offing given the Royal Challengers' poor progress in IPL. Mallya is now pointing fingers at the skipper for his choices and the current position of the team.
"My biggest mistake was to abstain from the selection of the team. Unfortunately in cricket, unlike in any other sport, the captain is the boss," he said.
Bangalore's icon has nothing to offer in defence, and agrees that it has not been a happy marriage.
"Well, we haven't played good cricket so people are obviously going to make the odd comment. There are other teams in this competition who are not doing equally well, who were probably rated much higher than we were. We believe we have quality, we just haven't been able to show it, we haven't done well in this tournament - but there are still 6 games to go for us and it is a great opportunity for us to try and ensure that. If we don't then obviously it will be disappointing for us and the franchise," said Dravid at an after match presser.
The Royal Challengers have just one road ahead to salvage a relationship gone sour - to win all matches henceforth played.
0 comments:
Post a Comment