For some time early on Saturday afternoon, Ambati Rayudu created a flutter on social media with the announcement that he was retiring from the Indian Premier League at the end of this season. A short while later he had deleted his tweet.
The Chennai Super Kings player tweeted, “I am happy to announce that this will be my last ipl. I have had a wonderful time playing it and being a part of 2 great teams for 13 years. Would love to sincerely thank Mumbai Indians and Csk for the wonderful journey…”
But, CSK CEO K.S. Viswanathan spoke to the player and made him take back the decision.
Impulsive act
Viswanathan told The Hindu, “he was frustrated with his form and with the team also not having a great season, put that out in an impulse. Once I came to know about it, we spoke to him and assured him that we have full faith in his abilities.”
Rayudu has scored 271 runs from 12 matches for CSK, a team he joined in 2018 and was part of in the title-winning 2018 and 2021 editions.
In the IPL auctions held in February, CSK shelled out Rs. 6.75 crore to get back the middle-order batter who played a key role in the team’s success in 2018.
“We are not a team that works on just one year’s performance. Everyone can have one bad season. He is a key player for us and we told him how important he was to us and he later deleted the tweet. There is no doubt he will continue to play next year as well,” Viswanathan added.
This is not the first time Rayudu has retracted a retirement announcement. In 2019, after being snubbed for the World Cup squad, the Hyderabad batter announced he was quitting from all formats of the game before deciding to play in domestic cricket and the IPL.
The Jadeja issue
Apart from the lack of success on the field this year, CSK has had issues off-field as well with Ravindra Jadeja being announced as captain on the eve of the first match of the tournament before relinquishing his post after just eight matches.
After picking up an injury during the match against RCB, Jadeja left the team bubble last week and there were rumours of a rift with the team management.
However, Viswanathan denied the rumours and was confident Jadeja would be back next year.
“He was not going to play the matches because of injury and that is why he left. The players are all attached to the team and when the results don’t go their way, it is natural to be affected by it and he has chosen to take a break. There are no issues,” said the CSK CEO.