'Country comes ahead of your franchise players' - Robin Uthappa shows dismay over Rachin Ravindra practising at CSK academy

Rachin Ravindra was bought by Chennai Super Kings for INR 1.8 crore ahead of IPL 2024. The New Zealand batter played 10 games and scored 222 runs at an average of 22.20 at a strike rate of 160.87.

As soon as New Zealand landed in India for the Test series, Rachin was seen practicing at the CSK academy with the local spinners and the move has not gone down well with Robin Uthappa. The 24-year-old Kiwi scored 256 runs in six innings against India including a ton in Bengaluru. Uthappa added that CSK should keep country ahead of franchise interests especially when it comes to foreign players.

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"Rachin Ravindra came here and practiced at the CSK Academy. CSK is a beautiful franchise that will always look after its franchise players but a line has to be drawn where the interest of the country comes ahead of your franchise players, especially when he is a foreign player and comes and plays against our country,” Uthappa said on his YouTube channel.

"I am not surprised that CSK always go over and above for their players but somewhere in that kindness, maybe I am not saying the right thing, I absolutely love CSK, but when it comes to the country, there should be a line somewhere where we do not cross that line," he added.

It is worth noting, CSK released Rachin and retained five players ahead of IPL 2025 mega auctions in the form of Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ravindra Jadeja, Shivam Dube, Matheesha Pathirana and MS Dhoni. They have an option of using one RTM for the desired player from the released players list in the auction.