Robin Uthappa, who is currently part of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) squad, has played for six different franchises in the Indian Premier League (IPL) so far.
Uthappa started his IPL journey with the Mumbai Indians (MI) in 2008 and he moved to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) a year later.
Speaking on R Ashwin’s YouTube show, Uthappa recently shared an unheard story from 2009 when he was apparently forced to sign transfer papers to join RCB from MI.
"I was going through something in my personal life and I was completely into depression during my first season with RCB. I didn't play well even for one game that season. The only game in which I did well was when I was dropped and picked again. I played thinking that I really needed to do something in this match. Someone from MI had told me that if I didn't sign the transfer papers, I'd not get to play in the XI for MI," Uthappa told Ashwin.
"I feel like I played during the best phase of RCB. It was a phase in IPL where the first year was a lot of fun because everyone was finding ground. I think from the second year onwards, it became really big.
“So, I was along with Zaheer Khan and Manish Pandey. I was one of the first people to be transferred in IPL. For me, it became extremely difficult because my loyalties were completely laid out with MI at that point. It happened a month before the IPL and I refused to sign the transfer papers," he added.
Robin Uthappa had a forgettable IPL 2009 season with the RCB, scoring only 175 runs in 15 games at a strike rate of 102.94. He bounced back to form next season with 374 runs but Uthappa’s best performances came while playing for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) from 2014 to 2019.
Uthappa was roped in by Rajasthan Royals (RR) in 2020 and was signed by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for an all-cash deal with RR a year later.
Overall, the right-handed batter has featured in 196 IPL games, amassing 4813 runs at a strike rate of 130.58 with 26 half-centuries.
