Sanjiv Goenka reveals the reason for removing 's' from Supergiants

The Rising Pune Supergiant team did not just change captain leading into the tenth season of the IPL but also tweaked the name. It was changed from Supergiants to Supergiant. Franchise owner Sanjiv Goenka finally revealed the actual reason why he had to remove the alphabet ‘s’ from the team name.

After a dismal performance in the ninth edition of the IPL, RPS think-tank made two changed, removed ‘s’ from Supergiants but also removed MS from captaincy. RPS finished second-last in the points table last time around but have actually changed their fortunes by removing ‘s’ from the name as they have a shot at their maiden IPL title tonight at Hyderabad.

The journey so far

Much has been talked about the sacking of MS Dhoni as captain prior to the start of the tournament. Australian skipper Steve Smith was handed over the captaincy instead. After a lacklustre start to the tournament, RPS team was on a roll as they won 10 out of their 14 matches in the league stages. They defeated table-toppers Mumbai Indians in the playoffs to secure a berth in the IPL finals.

The move of removing the letter ‘s’ from Supergiants left many perplexed lately and Goenka recently came up with an explanation regarding the move. Apparently, it was an advice from an astrologer which forced him to make the alteration.

“I’m not a strong believer in this. An astrologer actually told me ‘remove the S and it’ll be good. ‘I don’t believe in this’. But we were not doing well, so I said, alright, let’s try this too. Remove the ‘S’ and let’s see what happens,” said the team owner according to TOI.

Sanjiv and his brother Harsh Goenka, have been at a receiving end of a lot of hate from Dhoni fans for their behaviour against arguably the greatest Indian captain of all time. Sanjiv Goenka commented that Steve Smith has a greater cricketing mind than MS Dhoni.

It will be interesting to see tonight whether the astrology would help Rising Pune Supergiant to lift the trophy at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad or Mumbai Indians lift the cup for a record third time.