Prima donna is the lead singer in an opera: Srinivasan clarifies Raina comment

Tags: Chennai XI, N Srinivasan, Suresh Kumar Raina

Published on: Sep 01, 2020

Chennai Super Kings owner N Srinivasan's statement that 'sometimes success gets into your head', in an interview on Sunday, grabbed a lot of eyeballs. Everyone connected it to Suresh Raina, who quit IPL 2020 due to personal reasons, even as reports of his alleged rift with MS Dhoni started doing the rounds.

However, Srinivasan has now come out again, and has stated that his statement has been taken completely out of context. The CSK boss added that he is totally in support of Raina over the decision he has taken.

Speaking to the Times of India on Monday, Srinivasan said, "His (Raina’s) contribution to the CSK franchise has been phenomenal through the years. It is important to understand what Suresh is going through right now and give him space. The franchise will always stand by him and he has our complete support during these times of distress."

Srinivasan went on to add that his 'prima donna' comment on Raina was not to be taken in a negative sense, and that the CSK boys are like a family. "These boys, they’re family. They’ve been family for over a decade now. When I said ‘cricketers are like prima donnas’, it wasn’t in a negative sense. A prima donna is the lead singer in an opera. Similarly, cricketers are always at the forefront of an exercise like this,” the CSK chief further stated.

Raina is an IPL stalwart with 5368 runs in 189 innings at a strike-rate of 137.14 with 38 fifties. Meanwhile, Srinivasan also admitted that it is highly important for IPL to be successfully conducted in the UAE amidst the pandemic.

“We need to preserve it in all its glory and work towards making it bigger and better. The league was moved out of the country twice in the past, but this time the circumstances are different. On that count, Indian cricket is setting a global benchmark for world sport.

“A successful IPL in UAE should and will become the new global benchmark for sports in the post-Covid era. It is something to be proud of,” Srinivasan explained.

--By A Cricket Correspondent

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