Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc revealed on Monday that he has yet to hear from Kolkata Knight Riders, who released him ahead of the mega auction for the 2025 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). However, when KKR CEO was approached to confirm Starc's statement, the contact was blocked, according to a media report.

On October 31, KKR retained as many as six players for the IPL 2025 season. Rinku Singh was their top retention at INR 13 crore, while they allocated INR 12 crore each for Sunil Narine, Andre Russell and Varun Chakaravarthy. They also re-signed two uncapped players, Ramandeep Singh and Harshit Rana, for INR 4 crore each.

Starc, who picked 17 wickets in the last season for the defending champions, including a match-winning performance of 2/14 in the final, was among those players who were released by the franchise. However, the Aussie never heard from the franchise even days after they submitted their final IPL retention list.

“I still haven’t heard from them (KKR)...," said Starc told Australia's The Daily Telegraph.

Following Starc's revelation, Times of India tried to reach out to KKR CEO Mysore to confirm the remark, but not only did he not respond to the text, he also blocked the contact on WhatsApp.

Did Shreyas Iyer incur a similar treatment?

On the eve of the deadline date for the IPL retention, the website reported that Iyer finally had some conversation with KKR. It was understood to have happened over the previous weekend after no approach from the franchise.

"As of last Friday, the two parties hadn't spoken. There was lot of word going around on Shreyas Iyer and KKR but the two never sat across the table to have any discussion with regards to the plans for future or the IPL retentions. The first conversation happened on Sunday," said a source close to developments.

Despite what reports may say, Mysore insisted that the franchise did engage in conversations with each of the platers pertaining to the retention.

"First and foremost, I think our approach has always been to maintain transparency and have proper conversations with everyone. I've not only had conversations with the six we have retained, but I have also engaged in conversations with the ones we couldn't retain. Obviously I am aware of some of the narratives that have been going around. It’s sufficient to say that, we always engage in talks with everyone and most people understand our position," Mysore was quoted by KKR.in.

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