It's too early to speak about the new faces for the next season till the Board finalises the $5-million cap for buying players, according to the Kolkata Knight Riders team management.
KOLKATA: It's too early to speak about the new faces for the next season till the Board finalises the $5-million cap for buying players, according to the Kolkata Knight Riders team management.
"When we are in dark about the IPL rules (whether the cap be raised or scrapped), we don't want to comment on who we have approached. With about 10 months to go for the second edition, it's too early to say," KKR CEO Joy Bhattacharya said.
He declined to disclose whether Knight Riders' skipper Sourav Ganguly, who is in London for his treatment of his father's heart ailment, had approached England bigwigs Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen.
Not ruling out that Ganguly did speak to the duo, the KKR CEO, however, said it was normal process and all franchise owners spoke to different players.
"Until the DLF IPL makes the rules clear, it's difficult to answer. But it's true that all the franchise owners are approaching different players. That's quite normal. Hopefully by the end of July, the picture will be clear for a formal announcement," Bhattacharya said.
But sources claim, Flintoff and Pietersen were waiting for the England and Wales Cricket Board's (ECB) nod to take part in the cash-rich Twenty20 league so that they could be a part of the Kolkata team.
The ECB has come under fire in the past for not allowing its centrally-contracted players to participate in the inaugural edition.
That the KKR have sounded out Flintoff and Pietersen appeared in The Daily Telegraph on Friday.
Disappointed at the sixth-place finish in the inaugural competition, which was won by the Shane Warne-led Rajasthan Royals, the Shah Rukh Khan-owned team is also believed to have taken the help of its other overseas players like David Hussey (Australia) and Chrish Gayle (West Indies) to get some new faces from their countries.
Bhattacharya also refused to comment on the suspension of the ban on Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar, a KKR recruit.
Asked whether he was relieved that Shoaib has been allowed to play by a Lahore High Court on Friday, Bhattacharya said, "It will be premature for me comment on this. The case is not yet closed, anything can still happen. What happens if the ban is upheld again?"
In April, the PCB had banned the 'Rawalpindi Express' for a period of five years for several incidents of indiscipline and violating the conditions of a two-year probation.
However, a Pakistani appeal tribunal during the IPL had suspended the five-year ban on the maverick speedster for a month, paving way for his participation in the Twenty20 extravangza where he had a brief stint playing three matches for the Riders.
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