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Chennai Super Kings star batsman Suresh Raina on Saturday (August 29) decided to pull out of IPL 2020 and flew back to India citing personal reasons.
Reacting to Raina’s call, CSK owner and former BCCI President N Srinivasan on Sunday said that the southpaw will regret his decision and would want to come back.
“The season has not begun yet and Raina will certainly realise what he is missing and certainly all the money he is going to lose,” Srinivasan said, speaking to the Outlook magazine.
Srinivasan’s strict comments came after Raina’s sudden decision to give the IPL ‘a miss’ shook the already rattled CSK – due to two of their players and eleven other staff members testing positive for novel coronavirus – ahead of the 13th edition of IPL which is scheduled to take place in the UAE from September 19.
Srinivasan said if someone was unhappy, then he won’t force anyone to stay back.
“My thinking is that if you are reluctant or not happy, go back. I don’t force anyone to do anything… sometimes success gets into your head,” he further said.
Rift over a hotel room
The report added that Raina was miffed with the hotel room he got from the Super Kings management in Dubai ever since he landed with the squad on August 21. Raina’s room reportedly did not have proper balconies which made him feel claustrophobic in the strict bio-secure environment.
33-year-old Raina, who announced his retirement from international cricket minutes after MS Dhoni on August 15, wanted a similar room like CSK skipper.
“Cricketers are like prima donnas … like the temperamental actors of the olden days. Chennai Super Kings have always been like a family and all seniors players have learned to co-exist,” said Srinivasan.
Earlier – on Saturday morning – CSK’s official Twitter handle had announced Raina’s departure from UAE while saying ‘CSK offers complete support to Suresh and his family during this time’.
Suresh Raina has returned to India for personal reasons and will be unavailable for the remainder of the IPL season. Chennai Super Kings offers complete support to Suresh and his family during this time.
KS Viswanathan
CEO— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) August 29, 2020
Raina has been part of the Super Kings set-up since the inception of the IPL in 2008 and is the franchise’s highest run-getter and a key figure in the team reaching multiple finals and winning the title twice.
In 2018, CSK retained three players before assembling the rest of the squad at the layer auction. Dhoni was the first player retained at INR 15 crore, Raina was the second at INR 11 crore and Ravindra Jadeja was the third at INR 7 crore.
