Icons and IPL's identity problem

Its ironical that Vijay Mallya does exactly what he accuses Charu of doing; 'give excuses'. The way I see it, it was his money and he could buy who he thought fit to be in the team, and not blame Charu and Dravid for getting him the team he is saddled with.

I guess Dravid is bound to go, if Bangalore Challengers don't turn in wins. In fact TOI had reported earlier that ; 'According to BCCI sources, some of the franchisees have indicated that they be allowed to trade below-par performers for those the owners feel might be quality replacements. But Lalit Modi made it clear that "if the franchisees want to dispose off the icon players or the underperformers in the team, the owners will have to pay off the three-year contract money to them". Or else, they can be traded to some other teams when the IPL trading window opens next February.'

Trading the 'icon' players would compound the IPL identity problem. In fact if the IPL teams hope to garner support from their local populace they have to let the 'icon' players be. Remove them and you then would have to deal with a possible diminishing of local support. Though the strength of the 'icon player based fan fervour' may vary, dropping the icon players would rob IPL teams of their core identity. Imagine Kolkata Knight Riders without Souravda?

Mallya is now caught between the devil and deep sea. Drop Rahul and face the Karnataka fan's ire, keep him, and the risk of match losses loom. Though, personally, I hope the scenario turns into Rahul Dravid leading the Royal Challengers on to a winning spree.