"I still haven’t heard from them" - Mitchell Starc laments lack of communication by KKR following his release from the squad
Veteran pacer Mitchell Starc shared that the team management did not inform him of his release from the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) squad ahead of the retention list submission deadline on October 31. Indian Premier League's (IPL) record acquisition played a crucial role in the franchise's title-winning campaign in 2024 after ending a nine-year exile from the competition.
According to the new guidelines laid down by the governing body, franchises were allowed to retain as many as six players ahead of the mega-auction. KKR kept hold of Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, and Varun Chakravarthy. As a result, the likes of skipper Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, and Mitchell Starc are released back into the auction pool.
Starc's return to the IPL was driven by the fact that the 2024 T20 World Cup succeeded it in the cricketing calendar. The T20 league in India proved to be the ideal preparation avenue for the players, which urged the likes of Travis Head and Pat Cummins to name themselves in the previous auction as well.
"I still haven’t heard from them. It is what it is, that’s franchise cricket, so all barring the Hyderabad boys (Pat Cummins and Travis Head) will be in the auction," Starc told the Daily Telegraph.
Mitchell Starc had picked up 17 wickets in the 2024 campaign, including match-winning spells in the playoffs and the final.
"Obviously the number of retentions do feel less" - KKR CEO Venky Mysore on the decision to release Starc and others
KKR CEO Venky Mysore had remarked that they would have ideally retained the majority of their squad after notching one of the most dominant campaigns in IPL history.
"Obviously the number of retentions do feel less, because we first build a squad and try to put all pieces in place in order to compete. And when you compete, and particularly in our case, thankfully, we won our third championship, and after that, it becomes even more difficult, because you really want to keep the squad that you have carefully built, who are also the defending champions," Venky Mysore said in a statement
Having retained six players, KKR have exhausted their RTM options, and head into the IPL auction with a purse of ₹51 crore.