Sourav has no takers despite IPL prod

WAITING FOR A BID

Mumbai, Jan. 21: The IPL governing council had approached all franchisees with the request that Sourav Ganguly be absorbed by one of the three teams that still have cash left in their purse — Kochi, Deccan Chargers and Kings XI Punjab, a top BCCI official told The Telegraph.

Deccan and Punjab flatly refused. Kochi dithered at first but then followed suit.

“Everybody told Sundar (Raman) — who made the calls — that at the current base price of $400,000, Sourav was just not worth a bid. Chirayu Amin has already made it clear that the players cannot change their base prices.

“In the current situation, the only way out for IPL — if they want to accommodate Sourav — is to reduce his base price. The issue may come up for discussion when the governing council meets in the first week of February. Will they change their own stated position to help Sourav? Let’s see,” said an IPL source.

Sourav, who doubled his base price from $200,000 ahead of the auction, was one of only three Indian players that no team bid for. Wasim Jaffer and V.R.V. Singh are the others.

The governing council had requested the franchisees to absorb all three. If a team were to make an offer for any of the three players, all other nine teams would have to give a no-objection certificate since the auction is over.

“We are not in talks with Ganguly. He is not involved with us,” said Kochi team co-owner Satyajit Gaekwad.

A Kochi team source said the owners were interested in Sourav, but the coach was not. He had been advised against it by another coach. Besides, one team had informed Kochi that it would not give the no-objection certificate for another auction.

The coach was even against picking Sreesanth, the source said, but had to take him since he is a local boy.

In Calcutta, KKR coach Dav Whatmore was quoted by PTI as saying: “It was not my opinion to drop Sourav. It was a collective decision of the team management not to bid for the 38-year-old southpaw at the auction.”