Former India and RCB wicketkeeper-batter Parthiv Patel said that Virat Kohli has taken a pay cut for the larger interest of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2022).
On Tuesday, December 30, the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) retained only three players, Kohli (INR 15 crores) Glenn Maxwell (INR 11 crores), and Mohammed Siraj (INR 7 crores) ahead of the mega IPL 2022 auction.
Kohli, who had resigned as RCB captain after the IPL 2021 season, was retained for INR 15 crores which are lower than his previous IPL salary of 17 crores and former Bangalore keeper said that the right-hander is bearing deduction in his IPL salary to give his side some extra push during the mega IPL 2022 auction.
Parthiv said on Star Sports during the IPL retention: “Virat Kohli has taken a pay cut for the larger interest of the team. We all know how good a player he is and how good a leader he is. So he has definitely done this so that RCB can have just that little extra in the auctions.”
After the retention process, Mike Hesson, RCB’s Director of Cricket Operations, said: “The player retention process has been pretty robust and exhaustive. We've got an exceptional bunch of players but the key for us was to ensure we have a sizeable auction purse going into the IPL Mega Auction.”
He concluded, “We had many good players whom we considered and were happy to retain, but that would have taken away our flexibility from the auction to get a balanced squad. We look to retain as many players during the auction as we build the perfect squad for 2022 and beyond.”
