Won't pick players just to get photographed with them: Goenka

The experience gained from handling Atletico de Kolkata in two seasons of the Indian Super League (ISL) encouraged Sanjiv Goenka to take the plunge in cricket. On Tuesday (December 8), his consortium New Rising successfully bid for the Pune franchise in the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL).

"We have found sports to be great platform to connect with people and hence decided to bid for a new team. That connect, the emotion, it's just fantastic. It cannot be measured," said Goenka, whose Rs 16 crore reverse bid fetched him the ownership of Pune franchise.

Having bought the franchise for two years, Goenka is not willing to look too far ahead. Asked what will happen to his team two years later when Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings return to the IPL fold after serving out their two-year ban, Goenka said, "We don't know how things will unfold after two years. But we saw this as an opportunity and thought of taking full advantage of it," he stated.

The Kolkata-based industrialist informed that this is not the first time his company had bid for an IPL franchise. The Goenkas had put in a bid for the Kolkata franchise (later named Kolkata Knight Riders) at the initial team auction in 2007-08. "We had lost out to Shah Rukh Khan's company then," stated Goenka, who however, refused to go into the financial implications of the deal. "I have my numbers worked out which I cannot reveal now. Wait for two years," he said.

When asked why he chose Pune, Goenka said "We found the Pune market to be economically more viable."

Goenka, who works closely with Sourav Ganguly in running ATK, was non-committal about any future role for the former India captain. "We haven't decided on any role for anybody yet. But the last time I asked him (Sourav) something about cricket, he just turned his face away," Goenka remarked.

Asked if he is hoping that Ganguly would help to draw support for his team when it plays KKR at the Eden Gardens next year, Goenka said, "Why only Sourav, I am also from this city and am hopeful that people will back my team too."

Goenka hedged his reply when asked about the Pune's first right of refusal over MS Dhoni, who is available for selection in the draft following the two-year suspensions to the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals. "Dhoni is one of the finest leaders India has seen. We have not decided on which players we should pick at the draft, but we'll do that very soon, he stated adding that his team will take a call on whether to bid for India's ODI skipper.

"It's not for me to decide. You don't pick players because you like to be photographed with someone," he concluded.