Karnataka star Robin Uthappa has shifted his loyalty to the Saurashtra Cricket Association. It has been revealed the former Indian wicket keeper batsman will play for the Saurashtra side in the upcoming Ranji season.
This revelation has put the final departure stamp on his professional association with Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), ending his 15- year career with Karnataka cricket. The KSCA has shown no objection in the veteran cricketer’s decision and granted him the NOC to play elsewhere in June.
The 31-year-old veteran of 130 First Class games and made his first-class debut back in 2002-03.
His career reached the peak after he made his debut for Team India in 2006 and later played 46 ODIs for India besides 13 T20 Internationals.
KSCA wishes him success
Speaking about Uthappa’s decision, KSCA Secretary Sudhakar Rao said the state board could not reach an agreement with him.
“It is sad but we wish him all the best. He played for Karnataka from U-14 to the highest level. He served the state in the best possible way. He wanted to go and we couldn’t say no to him,” Rao told PTI on June 20th, 2017.
Rao also expressed the importance of Uthappa in the side, stating that the side will lose an experienced name, as a result, Uthappa career decision.
“We know we are losing out an experienced guy. We had two-three meetings with Robin and I was a part of them. He was pretty keen to leave so we sent him the NOC last week. He said that he has offers from more than two state teams.”
Initially, it was widely reported that he might move to Kerala as the side was in search of an experienced name to add experience to the young side. However, he was overlooked and eventually landed up with Saurashtra Cricket Association.
Uthappa earlier dropped from Karnataka squad for the upcoming Ranji Trophy season after a dull time in the last season where scored 328 runs in seven games. This performance was underwhelming by his standards as he experienced a prolific time in the previous two seasons amassing 759 runs and 912 runs.