“The best headline ever written about me”: When Kevin Pietersen was bought by RCB for $1.5M in IPL 2009 auction

English all-rounder Kevin Pietersen was bought by the Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2009 for a price of $1.5 Million.

English batter Kevin Pietersen has to be one of the most decorated cricketers England has ever produced. It is safe to say that if Pietersen would have played his full years of England, he would have broken a lot of records. The personality of Pietersen made him an icon both on and off the field.

Pietersen scored 8181 test runs with the help of 23 centuries and 35 half-centuries, whereas he also has 4440 ODI and 1176 T20I runs under his belt. Apart from International cricket, Pietersen made his presence known in almost every big T20 League around the world.

When Kevin Pietersen was bought by RCB for $1.5M

Kevin Pietersen recalled the incident when he was bought for a hefty amount by RCB in the IPL 2009 auction. Pietersen was one of the first players from England to take part in the tournament as it was getting a lot of backlashes back him. KP and English all-rounder Andrew Flintoff was part of the auction, and both of them were bought for the exact same price.

Pietersen was bought by RCB, whereas Flintoff was bought by CSK for $1.5 million (INR 7.5 crore) each. He recalls there was a headline in the newspaper as ‘Dumb Slog Millionaire’, and it is the best headline that he has read about himself.

“The IPL auction – which takes place for the 2021 competition on Thursday – can be very exciting, or very disappointing. It’s as simple as that. You can get signed for big money and see your life change, or you can sit there with nothing,” Pietersen said as quoted as saying by Daily Mirror.

“In 2009, me and Freddie found out we’d gone for $1.5m in the middle of a Test match in the Caribbean. The next day I slogged one up in the air on 97, and the headline was, ‘Dumb Slog Millionaire’ I still think that was the best headline ever written about me.”

Until today, only one England player has captained the team in IPL – Kevin Pietersen in 2009-14. Eoin Morgan is likely to become the second (Buttler if confirmed, might become the third).#MIvKKR #IPL2020

— Kausthub Gudipati (@kaustats) October 16, 2020

RCB played very well in the 2009 season, and they manage to make it to the finals, but Pietersen had a tournament to forget with the bat. He managed to score just 93 runs in 6 games at an average of 15.50.