IPL 4: Sourav Ganguly no more a Kolkata Knight?

Knights are among the high-profile teams in the Indian Premier League with Shah Rukh Khan its co-owner. But for the last three years,they failed to reach the knockout stage. The team management wants a complete overhaul of the squad.

Its up to our coach Dav Whatmore to take a final call on all cricket-related matters. For the last three years we didnt have anything to show for it and we want to resurrect things, a KKR official said on condition for anonymity.

If the Knights eventually decide to part ways with Ganguly,he will go under the hammer in the players auction for the IPL 4. Ganguly was one of the icon players in the IPL and reportedly got something in the range of Rs 4.13 crore for a three-year contract. This time,the BCCI has set up five categories for the players and the southpaw figures in Grade C with a base price of Rs 92 lakh.

The grapevine has it that Sahara-owned Pune Warriors might offer Ganguly a contract for next year’s edition of the tournament.

Sachin Tendulkar and M S Dhoni are in the top bracket with a base price of Rs 1.84 crore each.

There is another story doing the rounds that Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman may have to lower their base prices in order to keep the franchises interested for the upcoming fourth edition of Indian Premier League.

Sources in the franchises said they would only be interested in buying the two star batsmen if the duo lower their base price from Rs 92 lakh (USD 200,000) to the lower bracket of Rs 46 lakh (USD100,000).

“Let’s get one thing clear. Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble’s IPL performance is pretty decent. So one can expect that Sourav who is an all-rounder can be bought for a decent price considering his base price of Rs 92 lakh. Also for KKR,buying him at a lower price from auction is a far more viable option than going for retention where he would cost USD 1.8 million,” a senior KKR official said.

Officials of a couple of more franchises also aired the same opinion.

“Dravid and Laxman do not feature in the T20 or ODI teams.

So the only place where they play is IPL. The first edition had a lot of novelty factor. But now the teams are more focussed on curtailing the budget and getting their economics right so now way one can expect a franchise to spend Rs 1 crore on Dravid or Laxman as they won’t be automatic choices in the playing XI,” one of the officials of a western-India based franchise said.

The last date for franchises to inform about the player retention is December 6 and as of now,only Sachin Tendulkar,Mahendra Singh Dhoni,Virender Sehwag are favourites to be retained.