The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Indian Premier League (IPL) ruled out any rethink on Pakistan players vis-a-vis the third edition of the tournament.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Indian Premier League (IPL) ruled out any rethink on Pakistan players vis-a-vis the third edition of the tournament.
“There are no vacancies. We can’t do anything about it,” said Lalit Modi, while BCCI president Shashank Manohar said the decision not to buy Pakistani players at the auction was taken by the franchisees and not the Board.
“We have given teams the best possible options. Who to buy was the choice of the owners,” Manohar said denying reports that the BCCI gave any instructions to the team owners. When asked if the IPL could have pre-empted the current controversy by excluding Pakistan players from the auction list, Modi said such things can be stated on hindsight.
Meanwhile, franchisees denied there was any effort to keep Pakistan players out. “We got the player we targeted,” said Brijesh Patel, the CEO of the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Delhi Daredevil’s Amrit Mathur said they had the got the player they wanted (Wayne Parnell) in the first round. “After buying Parnell we exhausted our purse,” Mathur said.
Kolkata Knight Riders’ Joy Bhattacharya said they went for pacer and Shane Bond fitted the bill.
Rajasthan Royals, which had four Pakistani players for IPL I, said they approached the auction with a specific targets. “We wanted an experienced batsmen in our line-up. Both Adam Voges and Damien Martyn are available for the majority of matches, which was important for us. They were our ideal picks regardless of our good experiences we have had before with Pakistani players,” Sean Morris, the CEO of Royals, said.
New Delhi continues to insist the government had at no time given any instructions to either the BCCI or the franchisees and had no role in a private auction conducted by the BCCI.
“Government has nothing to do with IPL, on selection of players and various exercises that are connected with it,” external affairs minister SM Krishna told reporters on Thursday.
—Inputs from Seema Guha and Javed Ansari
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