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The Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) are all set to play their maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) final as they will take on Mumbai Indians at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Sunday. Before the grand finale of the IPL 2017, RPS owner Sanjiv Goenka said have ‘respect’ former Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
“MS is an institution. He’s a legend. Each and every interaction I’ve had with him over the last two years, I’ve only walked out with respect. He’s one of the sharpest minds I’ve interacted with,” said Goenka.
Dhoni has led RPS to the final playing 40 off 26 balls in the first qualifier. His quickfire innings helped RPS to post a competitive total on board,and eventually defeated Mumbai Indians by 20 runs.
But, when asked why he was removed from the captaincy, Goenka said, “I would be foolish to say that I wasn’t aware of what was happening (replacing Dhoni with Smith as captain). First of all, let me clarify, MS wasn’t removed as skipper. He was captain for one season but we had just one year and we wanted to try out different things. The whole idea was to not allow the focus to shift and that’s how we’ve kept it. Smith and MS have combined extremely well. His strategies on the field have been hugely impactful.”
RPS last year, finished at the second position from the bottom of the points table under MS Dhoni’s captaincy. Since this is their last IPL appearance as per IPL’s 10 years contract. In the next edition; they will be replaced by now suspended Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals.
However, their participation in the tournament will depend on IPL Governing Council’s (GC) decsion. “Right now the focus is on the final. IPL is a great platform for sure. Let events unfold and we’ll decide which sports, where and how. But as far as our commitment to be involved is concerned, we’re in it for the long haul. So, the answer to that is yes,” he said.
Meanwhile, Goenka also revealed the reason behind removing ‘S’ from the team name. He said it is “Numerology.”
“I’m not a strong believer in this. An astrologer actually told me ‘remove the S and it’ll be good’. I told myself, ‘I don’t believe in this’.
“But we were not doing well, so I said, alright, let’s try this too. Remove the ‘S’ and let’s see what happens,” Goenka added.
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