27 May,2011 08:12 AM IST | | A Correspondent
Senior Indian cricketer blames Gambhir for saga surrounding his injury
"Gautam Gambhir has himself to blame," a senior Indian cricketer said when asked if the star batsman and KKR skipper deserved to be dragged through the raging club versus country debate.
Gautam Gambhir. PIC/AFP
"As the captain of the Indian team (Gambhir will lead India in five ODI's and one T20 international in the absence of skipper Dhoni in the West Indies tour), Gambhir should have told his franchise that it was too risky to continue. I can understand the pressure he must have gone through, but this was unnecessary. Gambhir is a great guy and doesn't deserve this sort of negative publicity," he added.
MiD DAY has learnt that KKR officials gave Gambhir the option of opting out of the IPL. "Our physio (Andrew Leipus) sent the letter to BCCI on May 25. We had been aware of Gambhir's injury from before, but he was confident of playing. He needed surgery but it was a question of how much he could delay it. Nothing would have been revealed until the scan. It's unfair to blame us for this because it was strictly the player's choice to play through an injury," KKR CEO Venky Mysore said.
A top BCCI official also blasted reports that they were aware of the injury.
"How do you think we were aware? We wouldn't have named him in the ODI squad otherwise. We got to know only when KKR wrote to us. If we knew the extent of his injury, we would have never allowed him to play the IPL. Gambhir wasn't under any pressure from anyone to play, not us, or his franchise," he said.
It is learnt that few hours before Kolkata's Eliminator against Mumbai, BCCI's physio called Gambhir to check on his condition. "I will call you later," is what the southpaw told him, it is learnt.
