Yuvraj sacked, Sangakkara the new captain of Kings XI Punjab

By Rahul Bajaj
for Cricketain.com

Published: January 16, 2010

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New Delhi: After days of speculation and rumours that Yuvraj has been sacked from the captaincy of his IPL franchise Kings XI Punjab, the Kings XI CEO officially announced on Friday that Kumar Sangakkara will be replacing Yuvraj Singh as the skipper of Kings XI in this year’s Indian Premier League, while adding that the Punjab left-hander would still remain the side’s “most important” player.

The Sri Lankan skipper was tipped to take over the job weeks ago but the team management had so far kept mum on the matter. The side’s CEO, Anil Srivatsa, finally put an end to the speculation by announcing Sangakkara as the new skipper on Friday.

“Kumar Sangakkara is the new captain of Kings XI Punjab. We are hoping for good things to come out of it,” Srivatsa told reporters.

Asked about the reason for removing Yuvraj from captaincy, considering that the team has had a fair amount of success under him in the first two seasons, Srivatsa said being replaced as captain would not affect the left-hander’s stature and hoped it would instead help him to do better with the bat.

“Being taken off the leadership role does not diminish Yuvraj’s standing in the team. Yuvraj’s inputs are vital for us. He has done well for the team in the past two seasons and has one more year with us. He did his job well enough, as we reached semifinals in both the years. This has got nothing to do with all this. He is still what he is in the team,” he insisted.

Sangakkara echoed Srivatsa’s views and said he spoke to Yuvraj immediately after being told about the change of captaincy. “I have enjoyed playing under Yuvraj, he is a very able captain. When everything was not concrete, I spoke to him and after that I decided that it was the right time to take up captaincy. I don’t think it would cause any problem. He is a very good friend. I had a long chat with him on this, everything was done very transparently. Moreover, Yuvraj is the most important player in our side. Any IPL team will be lucky to have him. He can change a match just like that. He is a match winner,” he said. “In fact to have a nationwide talent hunt for quality domestic players was his idea and I am sure it will help us this season.”

Quizzed on the rumours that Yuvraj’s attitude and the personal split between co-owners Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia were the reasons for his “sacking”, Srivatsa said such reports were baseless. He also rubbished reports that foreign players were being preferred over Indians for leading the IPL sides.

“It’s just a perception. There’s nothing to that all. We are a professional team and we have enough cricketing brains to take such decisions,” Srivatsa said. “To say that foreigners are being preferred would amount to taking a very narrow view. We don’t look at international boundaries when we pick players.”

Asked if the team has any specific players in mind for the third IPL auction to be held on January 19th, Sangakkara said the fast bowling all-rounders could get a look in. “At the next auction, we would be looking for fast bowlers, who are really fast. Fast bowling all-rounders. Plus quality domestic Indian players would also be looked at,” Sangakkara said.

Asked about what he thinks about the hectic schedule these days which has got even busier with IPL, Sangakkara said, “We are ready for national, IPL and domestic commitments. We will get three to four weeks off now. That’s enough time to recuperate and all the players would be raring to go.”

“I think it’s going to be testing but possible,” he added.

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