Cannot be a stepmother to Rajasthan Royals: Shilpa Shetty

Chennai:  Rajasthan Royals owner Shilpa Shetty speaks to NDTV in an exclusive chat about her team and the bidding process on Sunday's IPL auction. Few excerpts from the interview:

On being back at the helm after becoming a mother:

It feels great to be back in action. The Rajasthan Royals is also our baby and I cannot be showing it step-motherly treatment so I felt it was important for me to be back for the auction.

On this year's auction process:

I missed the last year's auction due to birth of my child. The energy inside the hall was good. It was a smaller auction, we already had our core team set. We had a few decisions to make based on what our team lacked and we got what we set out to do.

On sharing the table with Rahul Dravid:

Rahul played a big role in deciding the players who we wanted to pick. He knew what we needed - an allrounder and someone who can bowl well in the death overs. We had a great team last season but we lacked in certain areas which I believe we have addressed. (Rajasthan Royals picked up rookie Australian left-arm pacer and lower order batsman James Faulker, West Indian pacer Fidel Edwards and Sri Lankan wicket-keeper batsman Kushal Perera.)

On missing Shane Warne:

Shane will always be with us as an ardent Rajasthan Royal. It's just that he will not be physically present with us. There is no denying that there is a connect between the Royals and Warnie and there always will be. It depends on his schedules if time permits he would love to come and watch a few games of his former team.