{"id":615017,"date":"2025-12-06T02:20:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T02:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/615017\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T02:20:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T02:20:17","slug":"andre-russell-couldnt-sleep-after-kkr-released-him-shah-rukh-khan-suggested-he-should-be-part-of-support-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/615017\/","title":{"rendered":"Andre Russell couldn’t sleep after KKR released him; Shah Rukh Khan suggested he should be part of support staff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) CEO Venky Mysore has opened up about the franchise\u2019s decision to release Andre Russell<\/a>, one of their biggest superstars, ahead of the upcoming IPL mini-auction later this month. In a detailed conversation with ESPNcricinfo, Mysore explained that the move was driven primarily by the financial structure of the retention slabs and the significant impact Russell\u2019s retention would have had on the team\u2019s auction purse.<\/p>\n

\"Andre Andre Russell with Shah Rukh Khan <\/p>\n

Mysore said that while Russell\u2019s contract value stood at \u20b912 crore, retaining him for the 2025 season would have resulted in an \u20b918 crore deduction from KKR\u2019s auction purse. \u201cSome people missed the fundamental point, which is the [purse] deduction for us was 18 crore, not 12 crore by releasing Dre,\u201d he said. \u201cAlthough his contract value was 12 crore, the deduction from our purse was 18 crore in 2025. A lot of people missed that and said, oh, why would KKR not see value in a person who is at 12 crores? 18 crores, which would be deducted from our purse if we had reattained him, is a lot of money in the context of an auction. That was the trigger.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that mini-auctions require maximum flexibility. \u201cIn mini-auctions, you want to go with as much as you can to have the flexibility to look at options that might come your way. So from that perspective, if it was 12 crore, I think the decision would\u2019ve been very different.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked whether Russell would have been retained had the purse deduction been only \u20b912 crore, Mysore admitted the equation would have changed. \u201cIt would have made a huge difference. Although 12 cr is still a lot, but could we get a player of his quality for 12 cr in the auction? It’s very unlikely in a mini auction. But releasing 18 cr from the auction purse, it’s a fair amount of money.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision to release Russell<\/a>, Mysore stressed, was not a last-minute thought but a late announcement after days of exploring all possible alternatives. \u201cWhen you put someone in an auction, you have to go with an assumption you may not be able to get a player back. So if that’s the case, then what are your options? How do you resolve it? What’s your structure? All those discussions happen. In the days leading up to the retention deadline, we made the call.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andre Russell had sleepless nights<\/p>\n

Mysore revealed that Russell was emotionally shaken after being informed. Having been with KKR since 2014 and never returning to the auction pool since then, the development unsettled him. \u201cHe said, \u2018wow, never been in an auction since 2014.\u2019\u2026 It hit him after a couple of days. He came back to me and said, \u2018oh, I’ve really had a lot of sleepless nights wondering about where all of this could go. I’m so used to the purple and gold, Knight Riders and relationships I have built with the franchise, you and the owners.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The CEO also disclosed that discussions about Russell possibly retiring from the IPL<\/a> surfaced during their conversations. Mysore said the idea gained momentum after he spoke to KKR co-owner Shah Rukh Khan<\/a>. \u201cSomewhere that conversation [retiring from IPL] did come up as an option and he gave it more thought. For a variety of reasons, it appealed to him and said, yeah, why not? Let’s do this.\u201d According to Mysore, it was SRK who suggested that a coaching role in the KKR setup could be the best way forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could see he was agonising over it, and when I shared this with SRK, it was actually SRK’s suggestion of offering Russell a coaching role. Because, see, a player is thinking somewhere at the back of his mind, what happens after I hang up my boots? But I don’t think they want to think about it also so much because professional athletes are like that. They believe I’m still good, and Dre still is \u2013 he is fantastic and playing other leagues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russell was appointed as the Power Coach of KKR.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) CEO Venky Mysore has opened up about the franchise\u2019s decision to release Andre Russell,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4101],"tags":[181540,191671,1406,191669,4727,79,16,15,191670],"class_list":{"0":"post-615017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-andre-russell","9":"tag-auction-purse","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-ipl-mini-auction","12":"tag-kolkata-knight-riders","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-venky-mysore"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115670236251045611","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}