Laxman put team interest before self: Hyderabad franchise

MUMBAI: Stylish batsman V V S Laxman put his team interest before self after getting the assurance that he would lead the Hyderabad franchise in the Indian Premier League even as he declined to become an icon player in the Indian Premier League.
    
"Laxman has been named the captain of the Hyderabad team. He put the team interest before his own and gave away the icon status (which the franchise owners had demanded from the IPL Governing Council) as he wanted Hyderabad to have a larger
budget (for buying players). He showed fine sportsman's spirit," said P K Iyer, the managing director of franchise owners Deccan Chronicle, after buying the veteran cricketer for $375,000.
    
Each icon player will get 15% of the highest paid player of that franchise.
    
IPL has conferred the icon status on Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh to rule them out of the auctioning process and then added Virender Sehwag to that elite list when Delhi franchisees GMR demanded it.
    
The Hyderabad franchise too wanted Laxman as their icon player before withdrawing the demand a day before the players' auction held here.