You may loathe him or love him but if you want to win over Kolkata, you can’t ignore Sourav Ganguly. Not even if your name is Shah Rukh Khan. Post the auction and the effigy burnings, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) owner must have realised that it is difficult to run a team in the city without Ganguly as part of it. And, as DNA had reported on Monday, the team is contemplating offering him a role in the team management — be it as a mentor or otherwise.
“I would love it… I would love Sourav to be an integral part. You don’t have a team in Kolkata without him. So, I will speak to Dada when I get back,” Shah Rukh said in Durban. “We know the importance of Dada’s contribution. We will find a suitable position for him in the side if there is an expression of interest from his side,” Venki Mysore, CEO of KKR, told DNA, elaborating on the team owner’s statement. He, however, would not specify what kind of role that would be but he said they would be discussing it soon.
“We will sit with him (Ganguly) and find out what we can do,” Mysore said, indicating that the KKR management will be touching base with Ganguly soon. Shah Rukh refused to speak on why other teams had ignored the former India captain. “I don’t think I should be commenting for nine other people. There are 350 to 400 players. There are 10 teams with think-tanks varying in hundred of numbers… there are the permutations and combinations. I don’t think any of us can comment on who should pick who. I don’t think we have the right to do that.”
But, according to Mysore, they would have found a role for Ganguly by now if their former captain had not insisted on playing. “Look, he was planning to play and he increased his base price. He was clear that he was looking for playing slot. We had decided to go to the auction with full purse. We were not retaining any player. Now that the auction is over, we can find a way forward,” he said.
Ganguly, meanwhile, has been maintaining a stoic silence. He was not reachable for a comment.
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