Hat trick for Shahrukh in IPL
Shakruh Rakh and controversies are made for each other atleast in IPL. Prior to the latest controversy involving ShakrukhKhan on Pakistani players neglected in IP3, he was involved in controversies in earlier editions. The controversies included insulting Indian legends Sourav Ganguly and Sunil Gavaskar and keeping mum on a racial attack on Indians in the second edition of IPL.
IPL1:- When Sourav Ganguly confirmed his participation for IPL1, a couple of things were never in doubt i.e. Sourav would the icon player as well as the Team Captain. It is a known fact that Sourav Ganguly took Indian cricket to great heights during his tenure as captain of the team and his records speak for himselves. Though Sourav could not take his team Kolkatta Knight Riders to the semi finals of the inaugural edition played in 2008, still Sourav finsihed with a decent record with 6 wins and 7 defeats in the inaugural edition. Sourav had a decent start in the inaugural edition but lost momentum in between and what complicated matters was he his boys played under pressure throughout the rest of the tournament as Shakrukh often lost patience with every loss and the players were publicly criticized. True Shakrukh is the owner of the team, but the players know their job better much in the same vein as he knows himself better as an actor and he should have left Sourav do the job for him. Mumai Indians under Sachin Tendulkar had a bad run in the earlier stages of the tournament but to Mukesh Ambanis credit he did not interfere with Sachin Tendulkar and that showed in the end, as Mumbai Indians under Sachin regrouped extremely well and played brilliantly in the middle part of the tournament and were very unfortunate to miss on a semi final berth.
IPL2:- With Shahrukh increasingly becoming annoyed with Sourav during the latter half of IPL2, Shahrukh in tandem with former Aussie coach John Buchanan floated the multi captain theory. The move was criticised by none other than India's first cricketing legend Sunil Gavaksar who said that he did not agree with Buchanan's theory. Shahrukh Khan did not like Gavaskar's criticism of Buchanan whose methods were criticized by Aussie greats in the past like Steve Waugh and Shane Warne. However Shahrukh was so hell bent on removing Sourav that he did not spare even Sunil Gavaskar and criticized him just for voicing his opinion. If insulting Sunil Gavaskar who knows a thing or two more about cricket was not enough, Sourav's replacement was Brendom Mcullum who was an unknown commodity as a captain. Mccullum had a horrible in IPL2 as captain with 3 and 9 defeats and yet an no point of time, Shahrukh decide to replace Mcullum as captain with another player in team or by reinstating Sourav which only goes on to prove of Sharukhan double standards.
The controversy in IPL2 did not end just with humiliation of Sourav Ganguly and Sunil Gavaksar. Shahrukh's choice as captain Mc Cullum along with bowling coach Andy Bichel insulted some Indian players in the team during practice sessions. Shahrukh instead of warning Bichel and Mc Cullum both foreign players who took the extreme step of insulting Indian players after being contracted to play by Indian franchises were let of the hook by preferring to be a mute spectator. Shahrukh simply intervened and pacified the erring foreign players. It is surprising that while Shahrukh felt offended for snubbing Pakistan players in IPL3 not feel offended when foreign players insulted Indian players.
Staying with cricket, Sharukh should have very well known about the fact that not everybody can claim a place in the team as a matter of right. In India every player who plays tournaments like Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy for their respective States and Zones are considered for selection to Test Teams but only 11 are picked to represent team. The BCCI reserves the right to select a player based on a players performances and the player does not have the claim to demand a place like Pakistani players have put forth their claims in IPL3.
There was a a time when half of the Indian team consisted primarily of players from Bombay and Karnataka at a later stage. States like Goa or for that matter many Indian States like Kerala never had a player for numerous year and yet nobody complained
While It is debatable whether Sharukh was right or not in expressing his support for Pakistani players, one thing is for sure Shakrukh was not consistent as he insulted Indian greats like Sourav and allowed his support staff like Bichel to insult other Indians in the team.
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