The batter was blamed by the owner for the team's loss
In September last year, Caribbean Premier League (CPL) team St Kitts and Nevis Patriots took an questionable decision to drop batter Sherfane Rutherford while the tournament was going on.
There was nothing strange on the surface, only Rutherford and the team’s poor form to explain the decision. He had just 35 runs from four matches as the team lost nine of their 10 league matches to drop out of the playoffs race.
While many believed it was the differences between the batter and then team captain Andre Fletcher, Rutherford finally revealed the reason on Sunday.
In a chat with Cricbuzz, the batter said he was texted by the franchise owner after being dismissed for a duck, blaming him for the team’s loss. Rutherford said he had responded to the owner about the timing of the text which didn’t go down well. As a result, he was immediately kicked out of the team.
“The owner didn’t play any cricket. So obviously if you never play the sport, you would not understand the top days, the good days and the bad days – they are always there in cricket. So it’s just emotions. I think he just got off of emotions. As adults, we need to control that because at the end of the day, our decision can,” Rutherford told Cricbuzz on the sidelines of ILT20 in Dubai.
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The 26-year-old defended his response on the day by saying that owners should respect certain boundaries of the players.
“It’s important that you respect the player because at the end of the day, it’s my job and this is what I want to do,” he said.
“I don’t think the owners should text players, especially about performance, because at the end of the day we didn’t go there to fail. We know that in cricket you’re not guaranteed anything,” Rutherford further added.
When asked if he would return to the Patriots, Rutherford said he has moved on from the incident and is unsure which CPL franchise will pick him.
Rutherford, who has played 12 ODIs and 28 T20Is for West Indies, has been picked up by Gujarat Titans for INR 2.6 crore in the IPL 2025 auction.
The left-hander has played 10 IPL matches across two editions, appearing for Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Capitals.
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