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Chennai Super Kings (CSK) talismanic batsman Suresh Raina has broken silence over his IPL team owner N Srinivasan’s controversial statement.
When Raina flew back to India from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) citing personal reasons, Srinivasan had termed the southpaw as ‘prima donna’ – a negative term for a person who is hugely self-centred and temperamental.
Srinivasan had also stated that sometimes success gets into cricketers head. But, soon he cleared the air on his comments, claiming they were blown out of context. The CSK boss went on to say that the Chennai team will always stand by Raina.
Now, the former India international has also reacted to Srinivasan’s remarks. While speaking to Cricbuzz, Raina revealed that he respects the CSK owner a lot. The 33-year-old regarded Srinivasan as his father figure.
“He is like a father figure to me, and he’s always stood by me and is close to my heart. He treats me like his younger son and am sure a lot of what he said was taken out of context. Ek baap apne bacche ko daant sakta hai(A father can scold his son),” said Raina.
Raina further defended Srinivasan by saying that the latter wasn’t aware of the real situation. The Muradnagar-born said he has had a chat with Srinivasan and the issue was clarified.
“He didn’t know the real reasons for me leaving when he gave those comments. Now he’s been informed about them, and he even sent me a message thereafter. We’ve chatted about it, and both CSK and I just want to get over with it,” Raina added further.
Raina opens up about his future with CSK
Raina was even asked about his future with the ‘Yellow Army’. The CSK veteran responded to the question and said: “I’ve been training even while quarantining here. You never know you might see me in the camp there again.”
Raina is the most capped player in IPL, having played as many as 193 games. The explosive left-handed batsman is the second-highest run-scorer (5368) in the lucrative league, just behind Virat Kohli (5412).
