The Sri Lankan cricket player, and skipper for the IPL team Sunrisers Hyderabad, Kumar Sangakkara, spoke out about the IPL controversy at the sidelines of an event in Hyderabad to NDTV.
"Politics in this case has affected/restricted our presence, our belief to play in every part of India. But I don't think, sports and spirit of cricket is ever going to be curtailed by such prejudice,"
"The buildup has been different and difficult for Sri Lankan players. But at the end of the day they are here to play IPL. The Sri Lankan Cricket Board has made it clear that no Sri Lankan players will be [playing] in Chennai,"
"India is much more than Chennai and Tamil Nadu and I think the rest of India has been very welcoming of us".
"We are here to play cricket representing Sri Lanka and also on behalf of our franchise."
Commenting on Arjuna Ranatunga's demand that Sri Lankan cricketers boycott the IPL as a whole, Sangakkara said:
"It's been a divisive issue back home as well. But this is not a nation-vs-nation issue."
"It's only a state... and I don't think it is the entire state. So, we got to put it in right perspective."
"Foreign policies are not going to be dictated by that and had it been a nation-vs-nation issue then Sri Lankan players would not have been here."
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