'It was a tough decision' - Badale on replacing Dravid as RR head coach

Manoj Badale, the lead owner of Rajasthan Royals, avoided a direct reply to the question on whether the franchise was up for sale. There has been intense speculation that the RR management is contemplating off-loading stake from the team. But Badale prevaricated on the matter.

"Look, there's been reports on Rajasthan Royals being for sale for 17 years, so there's nothing, it keeps you busy," he said. Badale also addressed the issue of changing Rahul Dravid as head coach after just one year. Kumar Sangakkara has taken over from Dravid.

"It was a tough decision. It's not a new coach, Kumar has coached us before. It was really about simplification. There's no judgement on Rahul, I think he remains possibly one of the greatest coaches in India. So yes it was tough, but it was a decision and it's been made."

There has also been talk of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) being on sale and Mo Bobat, the franchise's director of cricket, said the development outside does not affect the operations team.

"The obvious answer is it doesn't affect us at all really. It's the current status that we need to make sure people know what's going on. For us it's going to be a difficult job to try and assemble a team that we're proud of and put in the sort of performances that we want to, at least in terms of on the field. For me and my whole team that's what we're trying to do," Bobat said.

The team has been under a cloud after the tragic June 4 stampede but the RCB official hoped that the team would be able to play at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

"As for the sad tragedy at the Chinnaswamy, I don't think I have much to comment on at this stage. I think everybody knows how sad an incident that was. We're looking forward to hopefully playing in Bangalore and being able to get amongst our fans and get amongst our people."