Desk. Venky Mysore, CEO of IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders, owned by Shahrukh Khan, talked about the retirement of all-rounder Andre Russell. Mysore told that the decision to release Andre Russell from the team was team owner Shahrukh Khan. Whereas appointing him as the power coach of the team was a decision taken soon after.
During a conversation with ESPM Cricinfo, Vinky Mysore spoke in detail about Andre Russell’s release and retirement from KKR and his becoming the power coach. The CEO said that the team management was considering all combinations. Releasing Russell added Rs 18 crore to their purse. Although KKR had to spend Rs 12 crore on Russell, releasing him earned the franchise Rs 18 crore as he was Player 1 in KKR’s retained players list last year, which was worth Rs 18 crore. Now this amount was deposited in the team’s purse before the auction on 16 December.
Mysore said that he wished the auction was not held every year because sometimes it becomes very difficult. Some things have to be done even if one does not want to. Ultimately we had to release him. However, many people started asking why KKR is not seeing value in a player worth Rs 12 crore? But what they don’t see is that Rs 18 crore would have been deducted from our purse if we had retained them. This would have been a huge amount in terms of auction. This was the reason why he had to be released. Because in a mini-auction you want to bet as much as you can, so that you have the opportunity to consider the options before you. From that perspective, if it had been Rs 12 crore, I think the decision would have been very different.
CEO Mysore said that when he told Shahrukh Khan that Russell was thinking of retiring from the IPL, the owner suggested him to retire. He was very upset about this, and so when I told this to Shahrukh Khan, it was actually Shahrukh Khan’s suggestion. A player is thinking somewhere in his mind, what will happen after my retirement? But I don’t think they want to think about it that much because that’s just the way professional athletes are.
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