IPL 2023: Former SRH coach Tom Moody backs Sunrisers' decision to release Kane Williamson

Bengaluru, Nov. 16: Sunrisers Hyderabad let go of captain Kane Williamson ahead of the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League. The Kiwi skipper had a tough outing in the previous edition of the tournament.

In IPL 2022, Williamson scored just 216 from 13 matches at an average of 19.64. The former champions had endured a tough outing, finishing eighth on the points table. Apart from Williamson, Nicholas Pooran and Sean Abbott are amongst the players released by the franchise.

Speaking on Star Sports show 'IPL - Special Retention Show', former Australian all-rounder Tom Moody opened up about Sunrisers' letting go of Williamson.

"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," said Moody.

"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. 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," the former Sunrisers coach said on the Star Sports show.

Sunrisers will enter the mini IPL auction, set to be held in Kochi next month, with the highest purse among the ten teams. Ahead of the auction, Sunrisers have Rs. 42.25 crores in their purse.