Post its inaugural season in 2008, the mega auction of players was conducted ahead of the 2011 edition of the Indian Premier League. After three seasons, teams shuffled their players and huge sums of money were spent on them. One such sum is $1.1 million, splurged on South African star batter AB de Villiers by the Royal Challengers Bangalore, courtesy of one man who was at the center of RCB’s strategy.
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It was at the behest of their then-analyst Prasanna Agoram that RCB bought de Villiers and the rest is history. This is how one of the most endearing player-franchise relations was born, which still holds dearly to every RCB fan.
de Villiers played for Delhi Daredevils from 2008-2010 with a decent record, which also included a century under his name during the 2009 edition. However, his true capabilities were still fairly unknown to Prasanna’s boss at RCB. Prasanna recently revealed that he had to convince his boss to buy Mr. 360 at any cost, even if it meant emptying their purse.
“When I told my coach Jennings we need him in rcb at any cost. He asked me let me know the budget for him. I humbly said put the whole purse remaining on ABD and if anything is left , we will go for other players”, wrote Prasanna on X.
Such kind of determination and zeal to get one player to strengthen the squad speaks volumes about the player i.e. de Villiers. But Prasanna wasn’t the only one who went that far. Gautam Gambhir, the highest-earning player in that auction, also did the same for Sunil Narine in the 2012 auction. He wanted Shah Rukh Khan, KKR owner, to spend the entire purse on the Caribbean mystery spinner. Fortunately, he was only bought for $2.4 million. In both cases, the decisions reaped heavy rewards for their respective franchises.
Prasanna was replying to another user who was defending him from all the trolls and vicious attacks. The user shared this tidbit, that had it not been for him, de Villiers wouldn’t have been part of RCB ever.
To give the readers further context, Prasanna recently expressed frustration and disappointment over RCB’s strategy at the recently concluded IPL auction in Dubai. He was particularly unhappy with how they didn’t invest enough money or thought process in buying good quality bowlers. He even told Ravichandran Ashwin on his YouTube channel Ashwin, that RCB needed to score 260-280 to win any match, essentially mocking the team management. This is why RCB fans are hating on him.
AB de Villiers In IPL Over The Years
Before being sold at $1,100,000 to RCB, de Villiers entered the auction with a base price of $300,000 after being released by Daredevils. The ‘Superman’ of cricket also revealed that after the Daredevils promised to retain him after the 2010 edition, they didn’t. He recalled sitting next to David Warner in the meeting and being told so.
However, his life changed for the better after joining RCB. He made a dear friend in Virat Kohli and made some memorable partnerships with him over the years. He scored two centuries (133* in 2015 and 129* in 2016) and amassed 4491 runs for them across 11 seasons, making him a bonafide Bengaluru legend.
Ahead of the next mega auction in 2018, 10 years after IPL’s debut, de Villiers was retained by RCB for INR 11 crores. He stayed with the franchise and retired in 2021. He was also inducted into the RCB ‘Hall of Fame’ alongside Chris Gayle in 2022.
