Kolkata Knight Riders Chief Executive Venky Mysore in against making any compromises with the Indian Premier League format. He wants the league in its entirety.
“One thing that I and we (franchisees) feel strongly is that we should not tinker with the quality of the product that we have,” Mysore told reporters in a virtual news conference today (Thursday).
“From a KKR and a majority of the franchisees perspective, the collective view is that we have to have the tournament in its full format, the same number of games, with all the players being part of it, and I would hope that whichever window we end up staging the IPL in, we’ll be in a position to achieve that,” he said, while adding that a few franchisees had different opinion (when the BCCI had had a discussion with the franchisees during March).
Mysore, without mincing any words, emphasised that he was not in favour of an IPL without foreign players as the possibility of the league with domestic talent was discussed in wake of travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Yes, it’s the Indian Premier League; yes, it’s primarily our Indian players who are the backbone of any team. But I think we should recognise that when you look at even our own team, a Sunil Narine or an Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, and Eoin Morgan, when these four come as a combination to our excellent line-up we have on our Indian side, that’s what makes this product very special,” he said and added that presence of foreign stars makes IPL a “phenomenon” and “their absence would diminish its quality”.
BCCI president Sourav Ganguly in a letter to the member States and associates on Wednesday had confirmed that the board is continuously exploring possibilities to reschedule the IPL 2020, which has been deferred indefinitely due the novel coronavirus threat.
Also read: BCCI working on all options to host IPL
Mysore also talked about the work being done by the KKR ownership in the disaster-struck Kolkata and Bengal. The city and the State have been fighting the duel blow of COVID-19 cases and devastation caused by the Amphan cyclone.