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This is how sadistic the IPL can get.
An Indian batter — one who had previously captained an IPL franchise and was now playing against them in a league match — was singled out by his former owner, who told the bowling unit: “Just get him out. We don’t need anything else.”
Players come and go, rivalries are part of sport, but for perhaps the first time, an IPL owner was seen speaking in such a manner openly in front of his players.
One of the support staff members from the franchise told CricBlogger that incidents like these leave a “bad taste” and should not happen in professional sport simply because a former captain could not win the team an IPL title.
You can talk about losing in sport, but there is also something called being a bad loser — and that line should never be crossed.
Sources said some of the bowlers in the team were left stunned after hearing the franchise owner’s thought process.
“How can you single out your former captain when winning and losing are part of any sport? This becomes completely personal,” a team source told CricBlogger.
There have been several instances in the IPL where players and franchise owners struggled to build the right chemistry and eventually chose to part ways. More often than not, however, such separations happened respectfully and on good terms.
There is also such a thing as competitive spirit among players, coaches and team owners. But singling out an individual in this manner is virtually unheard of in professional sport.
This isn’t the first time IPL owners have been accused of misconduct. There have been instances of franchise owners entering dressing rooms and blasting players over poor performances, while some disagreements have even spilled into the public domain.
“The respect factor has to be there all the time,” the source added.
No matter how high the stakes or how intense the rivalry, professional sport is ultimately built on mutual respect — and many within the cricketing ecosystem believe that line should never be crossed.
