We don’t owe an explanation for Pakistani players’ omission: Shilpa
By IANSFriday, January 22, 2010
MUMBAI - Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, who is a co-owner of Rajasthan Royals Indian Premier League (IPL) team, said team owners don’t owe an explanation for dropping Pakistani players from auction for the third season of the Twenty20 matches.
“We don’t owe an explanation on our decision on Pakistani players. The reasons for dropping are understandable in the current scenario. We would like the media and the people to react to such situations more sensibly,” Shilpa told reporters here Friday.
She also said that the franchisees couldn’t provide for the security of the Pakistan players and hence decided against bidding for them in the auction.
“We wanted the players to be in the country and at that point of time we were more worried about security. We did not want to take onus for their security,” she said.
Shilpa along with Preity Zinta, co-owner of Kings XI Punjab team, IPL chief Lalit Modi and representative of other franchises were addressing a press conference here after a tie-up between IPL and Network 18’s entertainment channel Colors for post match coverage.
“They have just sensationalised the issue. We request the country to collectively handle the situation sensibly,” said Preity.
Modi said: “There is no conspiracy against Pakistani players.”
