By IANS,
Kolkata : Five players of Kolkata Knight Riders have been asked to leave because coach John Buchanan felt they did not have any realistic chance to play in the Indian Premier League, the team management said Tuesday.
Team manager Joy Bhattacharya denied rumours that the step was taken to cut down on players’ cost and clarified that there was no discrimination among players.
“It is not right to say it’s a cost cutting measure. We have never made any discrimination among players. If skipper Sourav Ganguly was given a laptop, the same was given to all the other players. If Sourav was given pieces of jewellery, all others also got them,” he said.
He said that the five players – Ranadeb Bose, Rohan Banerjee, Sourasish Lahiri, Cheteswar Pujara and Yashpal Singh – will stay in the team hotel till Sunday and no amount will be deducted from their salary.
“They will be paid in full as per their contract,” said Bhattacharya.
The team manager also said the decision was taken because coach Buchanan felt that the players didn’t have any realistic chance to play in the tournament and there was no point in confining them to the hotel.
Ranadeb admitted that he was disappointed at being left out but did not harbour any hard feelings.
“Everything happened politely. The coach himself told us about it in an indirect way. We understood what the team management wanted. Personally, though as a cricketer, I’m disappointed to have missed out on the IPL,” he said.