Kumar Sangakkara appointed captain of Kings XI Punjab

Kumar Sangakkara on Friday replaced Yuvraj Singh as the captain of the Indian Premier League team Kings XI Punjab but insisted that the Indian left-hander would remain the side's "most important" player. The Sri Lankan skipper was tipped to take over the job weeks ago but the team management had so far kept mum on the matter. The side's CEO Anil Srivatsa finally put an end to the speculation by announcing Sangakkara as the new skipper on Friday. "Kumar Sangakkara is the new captain of Kings XI Punjab. We are hoping for good things to come out of it," Srivatsa told reporters.

Asked why Yuvraj was removed from the post despite the team's reasonably successful campaigns in the first two seasons of IPL, Srivatsa said being replaced as captain would not affect the left-hander's stature and and hoped it would instead help him to do better with the bat. "Being taken off the leadership role does not diminish Yuvraj's standing in the team. Yuvraj's inputs are vital for us. He has done well for the team in the past two seasons and he has one more year with us. He did his job well enough as we reached semifinals in both the years. This has got nothing to do with all this. He is still what he is in the team," he insisted. Sangakkara echoed Srivatsa's views and said he spoke to Yuvraj immediately after being told about the change of captaincy.