IPL 2020: ‘A father can scold his son’ Suresh Raina reacts to N Srinivasan’s comments on him

New Delhi: Suresh Raina’s decision to pull out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 came as a huge blow to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) last week Suresh Raina has said that Chennai Super Kings (CSK) boss N Srinivasan was not initially aware of the reasons behind the batsman’s decision to pull out of the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL).

Raina had travelled to the UAE along with other CSK players, but last week, the CSK batsman pulled out of the upcoming tournament due to personal reasons.

After Raina’s decision to head back home, CSK boss N Srinivasan in an interview had said that Raina was not happy with the room provided to him at CSK’s team hotel in Dubai and cited it as a possible reason for him returning back to India. While Srinivasan later said that he was quoted out of context, Raina has now said that as a father figure, the former BCCI chief has every right to scold him.

“He is like a father figure to me and he’s always stood by me and is close to my heart. He treats me like his younger son and I am sure a lot of what he said was taken out of context. Ek baap apne bacche ko daant sakta hai (a father can scold his son),” Cricbuzz quoted Raina as saying.

“He didn’t know the real reasons for me leaving when he gave those comments. Now he’s been informed about them and he even sent me a message thereafter. We’ve chatted about it and both CSK and I just want to get over with it,” he added.

CSK’s preparations for the upcoming tournament has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 cases in their camp.

When asked whether his decision to return back to India was based on rising coronavirus cases in CSK camp, Raina replied: “It was heartbreaking of course. This is a very deadly disease and even after so many precautions if the staff gets infected it just says how bad it can be and it can happen to anyone. I hope everyone gets well soon.”

However, the left-handed batsman has also hinted towards a possible comeback for the side in this edition itself.

“I’ve been training even while quarantining here. You never know you might see me in the camp there again. It was a personal decision and I had to come back for my family. There was something that needed to be addressed immediately on the home front. CSK is my family too and Mahi bhai (MS Dhoni) is very important to me and this was a tough decision,” he said.

The IPL 2020 is slated to be played from September 19 to November 10, across three venues in the UAE — Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and Dubai.

The left-handed batsman has been the most successful batsman for Chennai Super Kings as he has scored 5,368 runs from 193 matches for the franchise at an average of 33.34. (ANI)