IPL 2023: KKR’s Venky Mysore opens up on not retaining Shubman Gill, says he has no regrets

Kolkata Knight Riders CEO and managing director Venky Mysore admits the franchise does not regret not retaining players that are now bringing laurels to other franchises, someone like Shubman Gill. Speaking on the sidelines of the Knight Golf event, as reported by PTI, Mysore said he would rather be happy for the players that they developed and now those who are doing well for other teams than cribbing over it, as he thinks KKR made a right call based on the available information.

Shubman Gill, who played for KKR for a couple of seasons, was picked by Gujarat Titans ahead of IPL 2022 auctions – and that move paid dividends as the young right-hander scored 483 runs the past season and helped GT win the maiden IPL title.

Even as things stand, Gill is on the course of bagging the Orange Cap, as in eight outings so far, he has scored 333 runs and is only behind Faf du Plessis on the chart.

“There is actually happiness when we see some of the players we have developed go to other franchises and do well — Shubman Gill is an example,” Mysore said, as quoted by PTI.

Not just Gill, KKR did let go of a few other players who have performed well for their new franchises thus far this season – the examples of whom are Ajinkya Rahane and Kuldeep Yadav. While Kuldeep is the joint-highest wicket-taker for Delhi Capitals in eight games played, Rahane’s transformation under MS Dhoni in CSK is turning heads around the cricket world.

Admitting that IPL rules further make it difficult for franchises to keep a very limited number of players, Mysore said it's not easy to let some good names leave, but harsh calls needs to be taken. Justifying this, he said in 2021, KKR made it to the finals on the back of performances from the Indian duo of Venkatesh Iyer and Shreyas alongside Windies’ Andre Russell and Sunil Narine – all of whom need no introduction.

And with IPL rules allowing every franchisee to retain just four players, those players made the cut while others, unfortunately, did not.

“The limitation as you know, is the rules the IPL and BCCI make. In the 2022 auction, we were allowed to keep only four players. There’s always a debate. There are always eight or nine whom we would like to keep, you had to select four out of those. It’s tough, but that’s the system though. It happens to every team. (KKR captain) Shreyas (Iyer) was with Delhi, and he’s with us, so on and forth… I can give any number of examples. It’s never a regret, and the decisions were made based on the set of information that was available at that point. We believe those were the right decisions we made, but it’s always tough to lose some players,” Mysore opined.

He added that in the end, it makes him happy that KKR’s performers went for huge numbers in the auction, and that some of them are even doing well for their sides.

“Rahul Tripathi (8.5 crores to Sunrisers Hyderabad), Lockie Ferguson (Rs 10 crores GT), Prasidh Krishna (Rs 10 crore to Rajasthan Royals) you can name several of them who went for big money at auction.

“So, when you see those types of numbers you feel happy for them. It’s always a little backhanded compliment to our ability to bring those types of players and grow them in our setup,” Mysore added.