Spin legend Anil Kumble, who scaled cricketing heights at the national level while also plying his trade in the Indian Premier League (IPL), shared memories of the time he was signed by the former player for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). it was done. Owner Vijay Mallya at the 2008 auction. In the initial IPL auction, Kumble was not included in the initial list of icon players, after which he was auctioned. Batting talisman and current India head coach, Rahul Dravid, is ahead of Kumble in the list of RCB’s icon players, who was nicknamed ‘Jumbo’ during his playing days.

Kumble, who along with England’s Jim Laker and New Zealand’s Ijaz Patel holds the record for taking all ten wickets in a single innings in Test cricket, was bought by RCB at his base price after Mallya insisted in the auction that ‘no was not. Touch him as “he’s my Bangalore boy”.

“Yes, I mean it was one of those things where I was the captain of India in Tests and for some reason I was not part of the icon list so I was part of the auction. In which I obviously did not participate but My name was in the auction list. I remember as soon as my name came, Mr. Vijay Mallya stood up and said that as soon as my name came, it is not worth touching it and that was the end of any further bidding. I think that was the base price I was bought at and there was no auction dynamics like you see today, so I was told there were no (other buyers). Because the owner just stood up and said. That there’s no way, no way he’s going anywhere other than Bangalore,” Kumble said during a heart-to-heart conversation with Ravichandran Ashwin on the latter’s YouTube channel.

During his three-year stint with RCB, Kumble played 42 matches for the Bengaluru franchise, taking 45 wickets at an average of 23.51 and an economy of 6.58.

For the better part of his career, Kumble performed predominantly in the Test and ODI formats, as T20I cricket took over in the latter stages of his career.

Ahead of the inaugural season of the IPL, on the challenges faced in changing his approach from the longest format of cricket to the shortest, Kumble said, “For me, it was quite challenging to get my mind set to bowl just four overs because when I When I started playing, I needed that kind of overs to bowl an average of 55 to 60 overs in a Test match and to think what would happen if you bowl 60 overs and be done with the tournament. It wasn’t easy for me to change that mindset, but it became clear that the best way to approach my four overs would be to choose the most challenging overs rather than just thinking bowl four overs, finish my spell and then let the batsmen do theirs. Wait for the work to be done.”

In the second season of the cash-rich domestic league, RCB made the finals but lost at the final hurdle against Hyderabad-based franchise Deccan Chargers, who are no longer involved in the IPL.

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