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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