New Delhi: Robin Uthappa has ended his 15-year association with Karnataka cricket after the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) granted him a no-objection certificate (NOC) to play elsewhere.
It has been widely reported that Uthappa is set to play for Kerala or Vidarbha. Though the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) is keen on signing Uthappa, his insistence on including another Karnataka player – Amit Verma – in the squad along with him has not gone down well with the KCA officials, according to a report in a leading national daily.
KSCA secretary Sudhakar Rao said the two parties could not reach an agreement and therefore there was no option but to let him go.
Read also: Partnership with Kohli had become untenable, says Kumble
"It is sad but we wish him all the best. He played for Karnataka from U-14 to the highest level. He served the state in the best possible way. He wanted to go and we couldn't say no to him," Rao told PTI.
Rao informed that NOC was given to Uthappa last week.
The 31-year-old veteran of 130 First Class games could not be reached as he is currently in the United States. Uthappa has also played 46 ODIs for India besides 13 T20 Internationals.
When asked whether efforts were made to make Uthappa stay, Rao said: "We know we are losing out an experienced guy. We had two-three meetings with Robin and I was a part of them. He was pretty keen to leave so we sent him the NOC last week. He said that he has offers from more than two state teams."
Uthappa was dropped from Karnataka squad during the last Ranji Trophy season after being ignored for a league game against Maharashtra in Mohali.
He did not have a great season by his standards, scoring 328 runs in seven games. The previous two seasons were prolific for the aggressive batsman who amassed 759 runs and 912 runs.
(With inputs from PTI)