 Dravid, Charu Sharma ignored players I wanted: Mallya
12th May 2008 23:04 IST
Agencies
The internal bickering of the Bangalore Royal Challengers is out in the open with team owner Vijay Mallya revealing that he was at loggerheads with captain Rahul Dravid and the outfit's sacked CEO Charu Sharma over players' selection for the Indian Premier League.
Mallya made it clear that he was not happy with the squad, currently languishing at the bottom of the IPL points table, which has been ridiculed as a Test team in Twenty20 jersey.
The liquor baron said he had some players in mind but Dravid and Sharma completely ignored them and went ahead with their own plan.
"I had my own list (of players) but the fact is Rahul Dravid and Charu Sharma had their own list and at the end of the day, I decided to take the back seat," Mallya told NDTV.
"I was very tempted to bid for players whom I wanted but they held me back. Obviously things have turned out differently," he said.
He said Sharma backed Dravid to the hilt and even in the second auction, where the captain was not present, the former CEO discouraged Mallya to buy players of his choice.
"When Rahul Dravid was not present in the second auction, I wanted to acquire some players but Charu Sharma was very tentative about them. I mean I bought Misbah-ul-Haq because I was determined to do it. There were other players I was discouraged about," Mallya said.
On sacking Sharma and replacing him with former Test player Brijesh Patel, Mallya said, "Charu Sharma was appointed CEO because I thought he understood cricket and he would add value to the team and the entire Royal Challengers initiative."
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