Former national selector Sambaran Banerjee discourages fans from supporting Knight Riders
Former national selector Sambaran Banerjee discourages fans from supporting Knight Riders
The city of joy could not live up to its name last night after Kolkata Knight Riders lost to Chennai Super Kings to crash out of the Indian Premier League III in Chennai.
As it turned out, Sourav Ganguly's men did not offer the kind of fight that is needed from a side in a do-or-die encounter.
It was a case of poor cricket as the visitors succumbed to Mahendra Singh Dhoni's Super Kings. Former Bengal stumper and national selector was caustic in his reaction to the Knight Riders' failure to make the semi-finals in all editions of the tournament.
"That we couldn't qualify for three years in a row is unbelievable," said Banerjee, a national selector in 1996. He attributed the loss to a poor combination. "The right XI was never picked. Against Chennai Super Kings, two spinners should have made the team, but only one specialist spinner (Murali Kartik) was included. They should have also picked Iqbal Abdullah, the left-arm spinner."
Banerjee's ire caused him to make a request to the cricket crazy people of Kolkata. "Don't go to Eden Gardens to support Knight Riders for their last two games (vs Rajasthan on April 17 and vs Mumbai on April 19). They don't deserve any support and I don't think they will win the remaining two games too," he said.
Gopal Bose, another former Bengal stalwart, refused to blame Ganguly for the debacle. "What can Sourav do alone? He tried his best," said Bose, who was part of Ajit Wadekar's 1974 team to England. Left-arm spinner Utpal Chatterjee, who played briefly for India in the mid-1990s said: "They displayed very poor body language. They lacked confidence each time and they played absolutely rubbish."
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