Former Indian cricketer Anil Kumble recently shared the memory of how Vijay Mallya, the former owner of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) was adamant of bringing the spin legend into his team during the inauguaral season of Indian Premiere League (IPL 2008).
During the auction of IPL 2008, when Anil Kumble’s name was announced for bidding, the Indian fugitive former businessman Mallya immediately stood and declared him his ‘Bangalore boy’, shared Anil Kumble in an interview to a YouTube channel.
“Yeah I mean it was one of those things where I was the captain of India in the Test and for some reason I was not a part of the icon list so I was a part of the auction. Which I obviously didn’t participate in but my name was in the auction list. I remember somebody telling me that as soon as my name came up it is not how it is like now when my name came up Mr Vijay Mallya just stood up and said he’s my Bangalore boy. Nobody is touching him and that was the end of any other bid coming. I think that was the base price that I was bought at and there was no auction dynamics that you see today. So that was what I was told there were no because the owner just stood up and said no way, no way he is going anywhere else other than Bangalore,” Kumble said during a heart-to-heart chat with Ravichandran Ashwin on the latter’s YouTube channel, reported ANI.
Anil Kumble was not included in the initial list of IPL icon players
THe legendary cricketer, Anil Kumble had to participate in the auction after his name was absent from the initial list of icon players. Instead of Kumble, other big names were mentioned in the list including Rahul Dravid.
During the IPL auction, Anil Kumble was picked up by the RCB at his base price after Mallya insisted at the auction that ‘nobody’ was to touch him as “he’s my Bangalore boy”. Later, Anil Kumble remained with the RCB for three years. Throughout his work with the team, Kumble made 42 appearances for the Bengaluru franchise, and picked up 45 wickets at an average of 23.51 and an economy of 6.58.
For the better part of his career, Kumble predominantly featured in Test and ODI formats, as T20Is came into the cricketing currency during the latter stages of his career.
