Kolkata, May 13: It was an accident waiting to happen. But thanks to Knight Riders coach John Buchanan, everything ended well.

Four Bengal boys — Ranadeb Bose, Sourashis Lahiri, Rohan Banerjee, Yashpal Singh, along with Saurashtra batsman Cheteswar Pujara — were released from the Knight Riders camp on Tuesday. They had been with the team but did not figure in the playing XI in any of the matches played so far. Buchanan felt that their services would no longer be required and told them to "go home and relax".

Said Bose: "I have no hard feelings. The coach called us in his room and said, ‘Boys, from now on we will be focusing solely on the main squad. We have to win at least four out of the last six group league matches to make it to the semifinals. And, you won’t be in the focus during practice. So, it’s better not to waste your time here. Go home and relax’.

"Buchanan said this in a very dignified way. Honestly, we have made very little contributions to the team. We were the part of the extended family. Obviously I am disappointed. But as the coach, he needs to look at the bigger picture. And what he said was not off the mark," Bose said on Wednesday.

Owner Shah Rukh Khan also put his foot down and backed Buchanan’s judgement. "There is no controversy in it. John thought it was better to release them. A squad of 23 was becoming too big at this stage. They are still part of the Knight Riders family. Their contracts and all the words we gave them stay," he said.

Bose too is certain that they will get their contract money. "They have already paid me 65 per cent in advance and the way they treated us we had no apprehensions that we would be deprived off our dues," he asserted.

The grapevine however, has it that the players were released as part of a cost curtailment exercise. Nobody from the Red Chillies camp — franchise owners of the Kolkata team — confirmed that. But even if that is the case, it is nothing new in the corporate world.

Red Chillies won the Kolkata team franchisee for $75.09 million. There are day-to-day expenditures that are huge. Kings XI Punjab have already trimmed their squad and some other teams are seriously contemplating the move. The question is, are they saying au revoir gracefully? Buchanan, who is fast turning out to be an Alex Ferguson or a Vince Lombardi for the Knight Riders, ensured that dignity was maintained.