Why did U Mumba not retain Siddharth Desai?Siddharth Desai, U Mumba

Siddharth Desai was the break out star of Pro Kabaddi 2017 destroying opposition defences with his power and escaping abilities. Ahead of Pro Kabaddi retentions list U Mumba were expected to retain Siddharth Desai, but much to the surprise of everyone Siddharth Desai was not retained by U Mumba. We could think of 4 reasons why U Mumba decided not to retain the break out star of PKL 5.

Injuries: 

Siddharth Desai was arguably the best raider of PKL 2018 until he suffered a shoulder injury which he never truly recovered from and was required to manage it till the end of the season. The 27-year old required surgery to correct the shoulder issues and there were doubts whether the tall and powerful raider will recover in time for the season. Hence U Mumba decided not to take a risk with his fitness.

Slowdown in the 2nd half of campaign:

Siddharth Desai was unstoppable in the first half of the campaign consistently leading U Mumba’s raiding almost single handedly. In his first 9 matches in which he raided more than once he scored 119 raid points with 8 Super 10s and 8 raid points in the other match. In his next 11 matches he scored 99 raid points with 4 Super 10s. Though this is not bad by any means U Mumba feared that the tall raider is being worked over by opponents thus reducing his effectiveness in the 2nd half of the PKL 6 campaign.

Siddharth Desai, KPL 7, Kabaddi
Siddharth Desai completing a successful raid (Image coutesy – sports.NDTV.com)

Saving cash for other players: 

U Mumba retained Fazel Atrachali for a big fee of 1 crore 10 lakhs and U Mumba would have to loosen a large portion of their purse strings to retain Sidharth Desai leaving them very little for other players. U Mumba think tank might have decided to spend the cash for other players or also strengthen other positions in the first 7.

Player himself deciding to not stay:

While all the reasons listed above might be valid, for a player to be retained, both the team and player both should agree to it. Siddharth Desai might have thought going in the auction will give him a chance to be sold at a higher price and simple decided not to be retained.

What do you guys think ? Share your thoughts in the comments below:

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