Gambhir will decide on CLT20 participation: Shah Rukh

"Unfortunately Gautam Gambhir is injured. We will not force him to play in the tournament. The decision whether he's fit enough to play in the championship has to be completely his (to take) and to his fitness staff's," said the IPL franchise team's owner and Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan at a media conference today.

Gambhir hurt his head while attempting to take a catch in the fourth and final Test against England and suffered a concussion that led to blurred vision and dizziness, which has resulted in the opener being ruled out of the ongoing ODI series.

The Delhi left-hander is also set to miss the CLT20 League as he has been advised rest to recover from the concussion. Shah Rukh, who was today launched as the face of the Champions League, said that injuries and sports go hand in hand.

"If you play sports you can get injured. No pain, no gain. The players know best about their injuries though at times they may take a decision (to play) which may go wrong. Sometimes players don't know how serious is their injury and they want to play," said Shah Rukh.


The Bollywood actor also rubbished growing criticism that it was the Indian Premier League, that preceded India's disastrous tour of England, which had led to the spate of injuries forcing the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led team to lose several top players since it landed in England.

"It's a knee-jerk reaction and happens only when we lose in cricket and not in other sports. Today we drew 2-2 with Pakistan in hockey (Asian Champions Trophy) which no one talks about," said Shah Rukh, who also brushed aside the growing debate of country versus club after the success of the IPL.

"All of us, franchise owners, were happy with the runs scored by the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the World Cup. We are all proud when the Indian team does well," he said. "You can stop IPL for one year and see what happens but I don't think it will make any difference. We need to be a lot more patient," he said.

Shah Rukh was also happy that KKR, despite having finished fourth in the previous season, have got a chance to qualify for CLT20.

"We have a good team. The way we lost to Mumbai (Indians) was so killing. Now we have a chance for redemption. We have not won a trophy for a long time and it would be great if we can do so now," said Shah Rukh who also posed with the huge 16-kg silver CLT20 winners' cup.

Tournament CEO Sundar Raman announced that there would be a grand opening ceremony in Bangalore, venue of the first match on September 23 between Royal Challengers Bangalore and South African team Warriors.