Rules stipulate that only four players can be retained, and not for nothing is Sachin Tendulkar bristling. Tendulkar rarely reacts strongly but the issue of the new IPL auction, it seems, is a sore point. "That part (about player retention) is quite difficult (to accept)," were his opening remarks on the subject in Durban on Sunday night. "We have really worked hard to build this team and have got together brilliantly. In the third year (they finished runners-up) we held a couple of camps, which had nothing to do with cricket. "It was just to know each other well," said a by-now emotional Mumbai Indians skipper.
"We just got together, played table tennis, (did some) swimming and (indulged) in other sports. It was just about getting together and building team spirit," added Tendulkar. "Right from the management and the owners, Mr and Mrs Ambani, they have all put in a lot of effort along with the players and then you realize that the team has to change. It's tough to accept that."
What he said next could set the BCCI and the IPL governing council thinking. "I feel it is about building teams, not breaking teams," thundered the usually reticent Tendulkar, without exactly raising his voice at any point. On earlier occasions too, Tendulkar has spoken out against the upcoming IPL auction and he was one of the first to have pleaded for player retention.
"I don't know, it's not my job to figure what's right or wrong but I feel if a player is happy to play for a particular team, it's good he stays with that team," was Tendulkar's reply when asked if he was happy with the retention formula announced sometime earlier by the IPL, wherein a team can retain a maximum of four players, not more than three being Indian and all subject to a player's consent. "There's some sort of identity with that team. We have a huge following now (something obvious in South Africa where they have been supported more than the home teams) and it's also an attachment with a particular team," he said.
Of course, not everyone feels or thinks like him and Rahul Dravid holds a different view. He had spoken on the issue a few days earlier and said: "One has to understand that two more teams are entering the IPL, and the beauty of the IPL is that it's very competitive, anyone can win."
