Justin Langer cleared the air on the visuals featuring Sanjiv Goenka and KL Rahul that created quite the stir.
Justin Langer, head coach of the IPL franchise Lucknow Super Giants has clarified that the post-match scenes between team owner Sanjiv Goenka and captain KL Rahul was nothing more than just ‘cricket talks’ between two extremely invested individuals. Langer, the former Australia batter, was in fact surprised seeing the aftermath of the Goenka-Rahul episode, believed by all to be a public outburst and a show of anger from the owner towards his captain following LSG’s 10-wicket hammering at the hands of Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Justin Langer summed up the KL Rahul-Sanjiv Goenka episode with a very unique anecdote.(PTI-Screengrab)
Visuals of Goenka’s manic chat with Rahul as the LSG skipper stood there like an employee getting an earful from his manager created a storm across the country, on social media and the internet. It led to all sorts of speculations such as Rahul’s reluctance towards captaincy and the franchise no longer being interested in retaining India batter ahead of the mega-auction. But as Langer pointed out, there was nothing more to it than 2 individuals discussing cricket. As a matter of fact, so taken aback was Langer that he compared the reactions to the aftereffect of the event to the birth of his daughters.
Unlock exclusive access to the latest news on India’s general elections, only on the HT App. Download Now! Download Now!
“I was so surprised by the reaction. It was incredible. For the last 4 days, I thought about this a lot. You know there aren’t many surprised in life. I’ve had 4 surprises in my life, and they were the 4 sexes of my daughters when they were born. I had no idea. When they kept coming out, I was like ‘It’s a girl. It’s a girl. It’s a girl…’. We didn’t know leading up to it, so it was a great surprise. So when I saw that reaction the other night, it was the fifth surprise of my life because anyone who knows Mr. Goenka or KL Rahul, they are the calmest, most peaceful men on the planet,” Langer told RevSportz during a chat.
“When I saw there was a lot of arms going on about it, I was like ‘WHOA! I’ve never seen that before’. But when I went in and listened to the conversation, it was just the passion and gesturing where the truth was they were only discussing where our plan went wrong for the game. No one knew what was said and I was there, I know it was all about the plan of our game. There was just a bit of cricket talk. In a lot of ways, we are talking about it. It has been such an awesome relation between Mr. Goenka, Shashwat his son, KL and myself. I was surprised by the reaction.”
No interference from owner at LSG, insists Langer
After images of Rahul and Goenka hugging each other surfaced on Tuesday, putting an end to the matter, Langer further pointed out that the LSG owner has no say in the team selection. The former Australia coach, who is in his first experience being part of the IPL, revealed that he was apprehensive about coming aboard the league because of all kinds of rumours he’d heard. Still, Langer is happy to be proven wrong and mentions that the equation between himself, Goenka and Rahul is nothing but cordial at all levels.
“Not once. Zero. When I came to the IPL – this is my first year – one of the things I heard was the owners getting involved in selection etc. That’s not my experience. It’s been incredible. The truth is, every day, KL and I meet Mr. Goenka and tell them this is what we are thinking and what our plan is. He asks a few questions sometimes and we have a discussion after which he goes, ‘Ok, well done, Good luck’. So yeah, it’s been very refreshing,” added Langer.
“Today again, we met about our plans against Delhi Capitals. In fact, I am surprised by how many times Mr. Goenka says to me ‘You know, I don’t know a lot about cricket but this is what I am thinking or seeing or hearing. What do you think?’ So it’s like the teachers telling the students about the game.”
