I felt bad we couldn’t get Harbhajan: Preity Zinta

MUMBAI—Preity Zinta regrets that she couldn’t get Harbhajan Singh in her Mohali team for the Indian Premier League (IPL). After all, both of them have their roots in Chandigarh. “I felt bad that we couldn’t get Harbhajan Singh on board. It would have been nice to have him on board as he is from Chandigarh. But Mumbai went all out for him, and so did we. But at least the good thing is, he got paid really well,” Preity said in an interview.
“A team is never made of one person. We had our budgets, and we had to stick to it. We wanted a team that was heavy with Indians. A lot of mathematics went into the game. Overall, I think we got a well-balanced team. And in the team format no individual wins or loses. That’s the best part of it,” she added. Yuvraj Singh will captain Preity’s Mohali team that has Simon Katich, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Piyush Chawla, Ramesh Powar, Irfan Pathan, S. Sreesanth, Brett Lee, Kumar Sangakkara and M. Jayawardene.
The inaugural edition of the International Cricket Council-sanctioned Twenty20 league starts April 18.
Excerpts from the interview:
Q: The IPL also has Shah Rukh Khan coming in. How does it feel to have him as a competitor in cricket?
A: I’ve always looked up to Shah Rukh. When I did my first film “Dil Se” with him he was already a huge star. To me it’s a matter of great honour to be on the same platform with him. We’re all working very hard on the IPL. Ours is the youngest team among all the IPL owners. Let’s be positive about it. It’s very important for the IPL team to work in totality.
Q: Which members of the IPL have you interacted with?
A: You mean besides Shah Rukh? Vijay Mallya. He’s a very good friend, and a really cool person to know. As for the cricketers, they’re all in Australia now.
Q: How cricket savvy have you become?
A: Right now I’m more IPL savvy. We’re working on the format and modalities constantly. But yes. I’m trying to get as cricket savvy as possible. On Tuesday, I was watching the match in Australia. I was so pleased to see Yuvraj perform so well. He’s rocking. And yeah, I’m reading more sports news now. Rome wasn’t built in a day. And my interest in cricket will take time to develop. We just went to Mohali. The stadium there is fantastic.