Kolkata Knight Riders have released their captain Shreyas Iyer ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction. Iyer joined KKR in 2022 for Rs 12.25 crore and was made the captain. It was under his captaincy that Kolkata won its third IPL trophy in 2024. After this, several rounds of meetings took place between Iyer and the franchise, but things did not work out.

After Shreyas Iyer’s release, KKR CEO Venky Mysore said that he was the number-1 choice for retention, but they could not agree on a deal. He also said that every player has complete freedom to go to the auction, so that they can earn more money.

Venky Mysore told RevSportz, it is a matter of mutual consent. This is not a unilateral right of any franchisee. Players have to consider and agree on various factors. Somewhere, that agreement does not happen due to various factors – be it money or any other reason. He was at number-1 in our list. He was the captain, so everything has to be built around leadership.

In the end people have the freedom to take their own decisions – Venky Mysore

He further said that, we had selected him in 2022 and unfortunately he got injured in 2023. But as soon as he arrived, he was handed back the captaincy. We made it clear that when you come back, this will be your team. He was an integral part of the team and did a wonderful job. I have a personal relationship with him, but at the end of the day people have the freedom to take their own decisions. They decide what is good for them and which direction to go. Market value is also an important aspect.

Let us tell you that on Thursday, October 31, KKR announced the retained players, in which KKR has retained Rinku Singh, Sunil Narayan, Varun Chakraborty, Andre Russell, Harshit Rana and Ramandeep Singh for IPL 2025.