Jan 12, 2009

Sport - Cricket;Dravid is not Royal Challengers captain yet: Mallya

NEW DELHI: Bangalore Royal Challengers owner Vijay Mallya on Sunday made it clear that he has not yet finalised Rahul Dravid as captain of the Indian Premier League outfit.

Reacting to media reports claiming Dravid has been retained as skipper of the side, a not-too-amused Mallya said, "Who said so? After all, I'm the boss of the team. I'll decide who will be the captain."

Asked whether he had already made up his mind on retaining Dravid as the captain, Mallya said he will talk to the senior India batsman before taking a final call.

"I'm going to talk to Rahul in this regard. He is a mature, educated and intelligent man," Mallya said.

The Bangalore side cut a sorry figure in the first edition of the IPL and Mallya didn't hide his disappointment at the composition of the side.

Mallya felt his inputs during the IPL auction were completely ignored by Dravid and former CEO Charu Sharma, who eventually got the boot, and the result was a largely Test squad comprising senior players who were not deemed the best choice for the Twenty20 format.

Mallya, however, ruled out wholesale changes in the squad and said he would do everything to ensure that the team performs better this year.

"You would not see too many changes but I'm going to do whatever it takes so that the side becomes stronger than before," said Mallya, who was here to unveil the inaugural edition of the Force India Formula One 2009 calendar.

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