Rayudu retirement flip-flop: CSK insider says there are ‘slight problems in the family’

Ambati Rayudu did a retirement flip-flop and a mini controversy surfaced. A Chennai Super Kings insider spoke about “slight problems in the family”, vowing to fix it at the earliest. On Saturday, Rayudu posted a tweet, calling time on his IPL career before reversing his decision and deleting the tweet. “I am happy to announce that this will be my last IPL.
I have had a wonderful time playing it and being a part of 2 great teams for 13 years,” tweeted the veteran batsman, adding: “Would love to sincerely thank Mumbai Indians and CSK for the wonderful journey.” Minutes later he deleted the tweet.
CSK chief executive Kasi Viswanathan confirmed that Rayudu hasn’t retired. “He hasn’t retired. He was a bit disappointed for not having done well this season. So in a fit of (frustration), he put that on Twitter. Then I called him and told him that this was not the management’s view (that he is not contributing) and he shouldn’t do that (retire). He agreed to that. He is so attached to the franchise, he felt that he wasn’t doing well and should quit. That’s the only thing,” Viswanathan told The Indian Express.

Rayudu, 36, was part of CSK’s title-winning squad last year. The franchise released him ahead of the mega auction this term before buying him back for Rs 6.75 crore. The four-time champions had a poor IPL campaign this year, already out of the playoffs race with two group league matches remaining. Batting inconsency has been their real bugbear and Rayudu’s contribution – 271 runs from 12 matches – is average.
Grapevine has it that not all is well in that CSK camp that reflected in the captaincy change also. Ravindra Jadeja was appointed captain before the start of the tournament, but he handed it back to MS Dhoni mid-season “to focus on his game”. Then, the all-rounder was ruled out of the tournament after suffering a bruised rib and was released. Viswanathan insed that there was no fallout, but some of Jadeja’s teammates told this paper that the player wasn’t happy with the way the captaincy issue was handled.
A CSK insider admitted that there have been some issues. “In a big family, there will always be some problems. Like that we are going through slight problems, which we will come out of. We have the resources to do that,” he said.