‘What’s bothering him? He’s earning a 400-crore profit’: Sehwag’s bashes LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka’s act against KL Rahul.

Virender Sehwag warned Sanjiv Goenka that following his viral act, LSG captain KL Rahul could leave the franchise at the end of IPL 2024. Former India cricketer Virender Sehwag lashed out at Lucknow Super Giants owner Sanjiv Goenka for his apparent outburst against team captain KL Rahul after the side succumbed to a 10-wicket loss against Sunrisers Hyderabad earlier this week. The act was caught on live TV moments after the match ended in Hyderabad, which dented LSG’s chance of making the playoffs this season, and it instantly went viral. Speaking to Cricbuzz on Saturday ahead of the start of the IPL 2024 match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians, Sehwag reckoned that the owner’s should only be meeting the players if they have something positive or motivational to talk about, and leave the rest of the cricketing responsibilities on the shoulders of the captain and the support staff. “The owner’s role should be that when they meet the players in the dressing room or during a press meet, they should only talk to motivate them. But if the owner comes and asks – ‘What is going on? What’s the problem?’ or gets hold of one of the team management members and starts to raise questions about a particular player…see the coaches and the captain run the team, so it is better for these owners not to get involved with players or get angry with me,” he said. The former Indian opener, who also served as mentor for Punjab Kings for three IPL seasons, between 2016 and 2018, then slammed Goenka for his act, saying that being a businessman, he did not incur a loss after LSG’s defeat against SRH. He pointed out that irrespective of the how the team performs, the owners do earn a considerable profit, before adding that the only loss that he could face is that Rahul could leave the franchise at the end of the 2024 season. “These are all businessmen. They only understand profit and loss. But here, there is no loss, so what’s bothering them? You are earning a 400-crore profit. I mean, this is a business where you have to do nothing at all. You have guys to take care of that, and irrespective of what happens, you are earning profit. So you’re work should only be to motivate the players. What happens is that the player will think that there are other franchises in the IPL, if I leave, someone else will take me. And if you lose a player, your chances of winning are zero. When I left Punjab, they were fifth. They never came fifth in any other seasons,” he said.