IPL 2023 retention: "That’s a huge amount of money, particularly for a foreign player" - Former SRH coach on why Kane Williamson has been released

Former Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) coach Tom Moody tried to explain the logic behind the new SRH management releasing their captain Kane Williamson ahead of the IPL 2023 auction.

Williamson was retained by the franchise for a whopping INR 14 crore ahead of last year's mega auction and big stars like David Warner and Rashid Khan were let go. However, the SRH skipper had a horrible season, scoring just 216 runs at an appalling strike rate of 93.51.

Speaking to Star Sports, Tom Moody explained why letting Kane Williamson go was difficult, yet right decision by the SRH franchise. He said:

"I totally get the decision on the basis of the 14 crore, that’s a huge amount of money, particularly for a foreign player. For an Indian player? Certainly not. And we have always got to look at that kind of relationship between the supply and demand of your overseas players against the supply and demand of your high quality Indian players. And you’re always going to have to pay, and quite rightly so, pay big money for your top Indian players.”

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Tom Moody on why Kane Williamson was retained last year

Tom Moody was a part of the SRH management that retained Kane Williamson last year before the mega auction. He opined that although Williamson had his injury woes, he was still a 'significant pillar' on which the old management wanted to build a new team.

On this, Moody stated:

“Yeah, it’s going to be very interesting to see what the new management does at Sunrisers with regards to Kane, because you make a big decision to begin with in retaining a player like Kane Williamson. At the beginning of a major auction, you back him as your leader, everyone recognises that he’s one of the games great modern leaders. Yes, he had a poor season, yes, he had injury problems over the last 12 months. But it’s clear they have made a decision to change such a significant pillar in what their future was going to look like when they first sat down before the big auction."

After letting stars like Williamson and Nicholas Pooran go, SRH have the highest purse remaining ahead of the IPL 2023 auction. (INR 42.25 crore)