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Mike Hesson, who served as the Director of Cricket at the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), revealed why Yuzvendra Chahal had to depart from the franchise before the IPL 2022 season. The 49-year-old stated that RCB had planned to buy back Yuzvendra Chahal at the mega auction after deciding to not retain him, but their plans went haywire.
Before the mega auction for the IPL 2022 season, RCB had decided to retain only three out of four players, who were Virat Kohli (₹15 crore), Glenn Maxwell (₹11 crore), and Mohammed Siraj (₹7 crore). It was expected that the Bengaluru-based franchise would buy back Yuzvendra Chahal at the mega auction, but they didn’t put a single bid for one of the top performers for the better part of the decade, which led to Rajasthan Royals securing his services for ₹6.50 crore.
During his interview with Cricket.com on their show, Mike Hesson divulged the reasons in regards to missing out on bringing back Yuzvendra Chahal to RCB. He was quoted as saying, “We only retained three players because we wanted to buy back both Harshal Patel and Yuzi at the auction. By only retaining three players, it gave us an extra four crore to do that.”
“Probably the thing that I’m frustrated about even now is the fact that he couldn’t make the top two marquee lists despite being one of the best ever in the IPL. That was ridiculous. And the fact that he came in at No.65 in the auction list (sic) meant that it was really difficult for us to guarantee that we will get him,” he added.
Mike Hesson also shared details about his personal chat with Yuzvendra Chahal after the IPL 2022 auction. He remarked, “Yuzi was communicated with a huge amount. And I know that because I was the guy at the other end of the phone.”
“I remember ringing Yuzi afterwards and he was upset. It was very difficult to try and explain to him the auction dynamics at that time. He was visibly disinterested, and I don’t blame him. He was an RCBian and he was frustrated. But I can assure everyone that he is well aware of the issues we were confronted with,” the 49-year-old added.
