IPL 2024: Why RCB release Yuzi Chahal? Ex-Director Mike Hesson revealed

IPL 2024: Former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) Director of Cricket Mike Hesson has revealed the reason behind the franchise's decision to release Yuzvendra Chahal ahead of the mega auction for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. Before the IPL 2022 mega auction, RCB had retained three players – Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell and Mohammed Siraj.

Ex-Director Mike Hesson revealed: RCB's decision to release Chahal came as a big shock and the leg spinner was eventually bought by Rajasthan Royals during the auction. Hesson, who was RCB's Director of Cricket at the time, said that Chahal was personally called to explain the reason behind his release. Hesson told that Chahal was upset and did not show interest in the conversation.

Image Source: RCB X

Why RCB release Yuzi Chahal?

• Hesson said- We wanted to buy Chahal in the auction by paying a huge amount. I know that because I was with the team in all this planning. I remember that later when Chahal was upset, I called him. Trying to explain the dynamics of the auction to them at that time was very difficult. He was clearly sad and I don't blame him. He was one of the most important players of RCB and he was disappointed. But I can assure everyone that he was well aware of the issues we were facing at that time.
• Since it was a mega auction, Chahal did not find a place in the list of marquee players. His name came in the auction after 64 players. Hesson revealed that they wanted to buy back Chahal and Harshal Patel in the auction, but with it being a mega auction, things got a bit complicated. RCB bought back Harshal, but Chahal was bought by Rajasthan Royals. In his place, RCB included Sri Lankan all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga in its team.
• Hesson said- I spoke to Chahal when we did the initial retention and we retained only three players because we felt that we wanted to try to buy back both Harshal Patel and Chahal in the auction. Probably the thing I'm really disappointed about now is, as you said Chahal is probably one of the top five players ever for RCB, but he's also one of the best players ever in the IPL . Despite this, he did not find a place in the first two marquee lists and this was ridiculous at that time. He came at number 65 in the auction list. This meant that it was really difficult for us to guarantee whether we were going to buy them or not.
• Hesson gave the reason for buying Hasaranga: Hesson also pointed out that RCB had selected Hasaranga, labeling him as a "three-D" player. He said, 'For Chahal we knew that there were five other teams who had more money than us and if we released all the bowlers before that, then only we could bid for Chahal. Everyone knows that we wanted to buy Chahal, but it could not happen. We could have been troubled by five other teams and still did not know whether we would have been able to buy Chahal or not. We debated for hours and tried to re-strategize for the auction as to how we could potentially align ourselves with Chahal. We thought we should go towards Wanindu Hasaranga. Obviously he can do it all – batting, bowling and fielding – and was performing incredibly well on the international stage. So we felt that if we were not getting Chahal, Hasaranga was a really good option for us.

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