Shah Rukh bats for Pak players

Bangalore, Mon, Jan 25 2010 (PTI) - After the IPL auctions, all team owners unanimously said that there was no previous agenda and only availability and practical considerations prevented them from bidding for Pakistan players.

However, Shah Rukh Khan - co-owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders - has now struck a discordant note. Shah Rukh feels that it was "humiliating" that the snub to the Pakistan players has taken place.

Speaking to television channel NDTV, Shah Rukh said, "I think its actually humiliating to me as a KKR owner that this has happened. We are known to be good, we are known to invite everyone, and we should have. And if there were any issues, they should have been put out earlier so that everything could happen respectfully."

"I truly believe that they should have been chosen. As a matter of fact, I'm not going to be the one who is opposite from what everyone else is saying but I wanted Abdul Razzaq. I think it was in the newspapers much earlier than even the auction started. Dada (Sourav Ganguly) was very keen," he added.

Shah Rukh had previously picked Umar Gul and the troubled Shoaib Akhtar for the Knight Riders in the first season of the IPL. However, with the pressures of extraneous factors such as threats by political parties like the Shiv Sena, he said it became difficult for the owners. The Shiv Sena had said it would not allow Australian players to play in Mumbai until the racist attacks in Australia on Indians are stopped.

"There is going to be a section of people who have suddenly gotten up and have said, rightly or wrongly, ' Australians will not be allowed to play'. So here is a set of people who are spending up to 70, 80, 90 crore rupees on trying to win a tournament and suddenly, even if you say this much to me, I'm like 'uh-oh, so should I take or shouldn't I take him?'"

"So tomorrow, if we had known this, maybe even the Australians would not have been picked up. These issues always come prime on your head, the stakes are very high," he said.

"I am not giving an excuse and I truly believe Pakistani players are the best T20 players in the world. They are the champions. They are wonderful. But somewhere down the line there is an issue and we cannot deny it. There is an issue, we cannot keep saying 'Oh this was wrong'. Yes maybe the way it was done was wrong, the way it is being carried out may be wrong. But you can't keep on saying 'Koi issue nahi hai yaar, woh aa jate' (There isn't any issue, they could have come). There is an issue lets not deny it. Every day we blame Pakistan, everyday they blame us, it is an issue," he added.