KKR says BCCI was kept in the loop on Gambhir

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Under attack for its role in handling Gautam Gambhir's injury, Kolkata Knight Riders today said that it had kept the BCCI in the loop over the injury issue which has now put a question mark on the stand-in captain's availability for the upcoming series against the West Indies.

Despite the injury, Gambhir played the eliminator match against Mumbai Indians yesterday and the move has now snowballed into a major controversy and sparked a debate on whether players are more keen to play in cash-rich events like IPL rather than the country.

A miffed BCCI is expected to take a decision on Gambhir soon. In case Gambhir is ruled out, Suresh Raina may be named captain for the ODI series against the West Indies.
KKR, who bought Gambhir for a whopping 11.4 crore in the auctions, maintained that the BCCI had been kept informed when their captain aggravated the injury.

"The last match we played in Kolkata, we took immediate steps to ensure that we have precautionary scans done. That's the basis on which report was sent to the BCCI. I can say that we did not hide anything from the BCCI as a matter of fact," said KKR CEO Venky Mysore.

"Gautam actually reported to KKR after the World Cup, he was actually complaining of some pain in his shoulder. He apparently had that pain even during the World Cup, in the World Cup final against Sri Lanka, I think in the process of trying to take a catch, he seems to have increased the pain a bit.

"When he reported to us we sent our report. It was done exactly in a timely manner. We did not feel that there is anything different which necessiated any additional steps earlier in the season and it was done purely on a preferred basis," Mysore said.

The BCCI, however, has not taken the issue lightly and there were indications that it could contemplate taking action against the player and the franchise.

"If Gambhir was carrying the injury, why did he not skip the IPL. It is surprising that the injury comes to light only when their IPL campaign ends", a top BCCI official said.
Gambhir, named captain of the team for next month's West Indies tour, is said to have sustained the injury to his right shoulder during the World Cup final against Sri Lanka last month while taking a catch.

The injury got further aggravated in the last league match of the IPL against Kolkata on May 22 when Gambhir made a sliding stop.

Gambhir is still not sure how bad his shoulder injury is as he still awaiting the result of MRI scan, done to measure the extent of damage.

KKR's physio Andrew Leipus, in his report to the BCCI secretary N Srinivasan, said Gambhir needs four to six weeks' rest to recover fully, which means that the Indian opener could even miss the subsequent tour of England.

In his report, Leipus wrote that the player felt acute pain in his right shoulder while landing on it in the field at one point during the World Cup final against Sri Lanka at the Wankhede stadium on April 2. Subsequent scans have now revealed a serious injury that would require him to avoid throwing or batting for four to six weeks.

"Gautam arrived in Kolkata at the start of the IPL complaining of a 'sore shoulder', the onset of which occurred during the World Cup final," the report said"...His initial complaints were pain in the shoulder and significant reduction of power in his throw. The clinical findings supported the mechanism of the onset of the acute injury, however, he did report having corticosteroid injections on two occasions over the previous few years," Leipus stated.

When Gambhir arrived in Mumbai for the IPL eliminator, he consulted a prominent Mumbai-based surgeon and had an MRI scan taken.

Gambhir's absence will further weaken the Indian side on the West Indies tour after the BCCI decided to give senior players, regular skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, opener Sachin Tendulkar and fast bowler Zaheer Khan rest.

With Gambhir most likely to miss the tour, India will be without their three specialist openers - Virender Sehwag, who has recently undergone shoulder surgery and Tendulkar, rested for the shorter format games.