Benching Misbah cost Charu his job, apology saved Prasad

Karachi:

Bangalore Royal Challengers sacked its CEO Charu Sharma for benching Misbah-ul-Haq while coach Venkatesh Prasad saved his job by apologising for ignoring the Pakistani player, according to media reports.

'The Jang' claimed the decision to keep Misbah on the bench in some of the IPL matches led to Sharma's ouster and according to the report, Prasad too was on his way out before he tendered an apology and escaped a similar treatment.

According to the daily, Prasad was sacked by the owner of the Bangalore team, Vijay Mallya, but the coach later apologised and agreed to set things right due to which his termination orders were taken back.

Prasad, however, was told that his performance was being monitored, it added.

Quoting sources, the report said Mallya had specifically told Sharma to convey his reservations to the team management over the decision not to play Misbah.

Sharma didn't press the team management, which preferred to play New Zealand's Ross Taylor, which did not amuse Mallya.

Misbah played only after Taylor left for national duties after playing five matches and the Bangalore side by then had slumped to the bottom of the table.

The report said thought it was captain Rahul Dravid's decision to leave out Misbah, Mallya avoided any direct confrontation with the skipper because of his icon status.

Misbah has played in the last two games of the Bangalore outfit but failed to get going despite his awesome record in this form of the game.