The Responsibility Is On The RCB Owners To Make Some Tough Calls: Sanjay Manjrekar

Former Indian cricketers Sanjay Manjrekar and Gautam Gambhir discussed Royal Challengers Bangalore’s yet another year of failure to capture the IPL trophy. Royal Challengers Bangalore’s campaign ended on Friday when they suffered a six-wicket defeat to the SunRisers Hyderabad in Abu Dhabi at the Eliminator. Gautam Gambhir and Sanjay Manjrekar have held the franchise owners responsible for their unsuccessful campaign.

With seven victories and only four losses at one stage in the league games, Royal Challengers Bangalore seemed on track only to finish in the top two but also lift their maiden title. However, they lost four consecutive matches following that as the problem of over-reliance on Virat Kohli and AB De Villiers surfaced yet again. Some of Kohli’s decisions as captain were also baffling as most have called for his removal as the leader.

Sanjay Manjrekar mentioned that the responsibility lies with franchise owners and not the captain since the former are the one who chooses everything. Manjrekar observed the time when Daniel Vettori was Kohli’s coach for a long time and even then the results were not favourable. Hence, for a change in their fortunes, the Royal Challengers have got to change their leader and the 55-year old does not expect Virat to accept his failure. Therefore, he wants the three-time finalists’ owners want to make the hard calls or brave decisions.

“I think the onus is not on the captain himself, it’s got to be with the owners because they are the people who appoint the captain and decide what kind of leader they want for the team. And couple of years back, I had made this comment that when you look at what’s going wrong with RCB, you will see that the results are not at all good. What’s been the same is the leadership and the team – the captain and coach. For a long time, Daniel Vettori was Virat’s coach and the captain has been the same. So, if you want a change of scenario and results, you have got to change the captain but I’m not expecting Virat to stand up and say ‘I have not delivered’. I want owners to do their job,” Manjrekar told ESPN Cricinfo.

“RCB’s performance in 2020 surprised you” : Sanjay Manjrekar

While Sanjay Manjrekar felt that the onus lies with the owners to take responsibility, Gautam Gambhir feels that Kohli should also take the same. The Mumbai-born cricketer gave the example of Chennai Super Kings in 2020 as they could not reach the final four for the first time and highlighted their lack of planning. He maintained that the same was with RCB and the fault lay in the planning and not execution. According to Manjrekar, it all comes down to who the owners pick the captain since their current one has failed to produce the desired results.

“The only point of difference you and me have is that the decision is in the hands of owners and if at all RCB is not winning the title, firstly I would hold the owners responsible for not appointing the right leader for the winning results and the planning that has gone wrong. So, I have maintained with RCB that it’s not so much about their execution. RCB’s performance in 2020 surprised you. When a team surprises you with their performance, it’s about execution and not so much planning. We did not find CSK in the final four because when we looked at the team, their planning was not right. Same with RCB. So, if they are trusting their leadership, who have not been planning well and not giving the winning results, the owners of the franchise are to be held responsible and then it trickles downwards,” he added.

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