Former South Africa cricketer AB de Villiers is regarded as one of the innovators in T20 cricket. While his Indian Premier League (IPL) career is synonymous with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), interestingly, he started in IPL for Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals).
From IPL 2008-2010, he played 28 matches for the Delhi franchise with his best outing coming in IPL 2009, when he scored 465 runs in 15 matches with one century and 3 fifties. This edition of the tournament was played in De Villiers’ backyard in South Africa.
However, in the IPL 2010, he had a lukewarm season with 111 runs in 7 matches and De Villiers revealed that he and David Warner were called into the office for a meeting where the officials promised him that he would be retained in the IPL 2011 mega auction.
Recalling the incident in his YouTube channel, 'AB de Villiers 360', he said: "When I played in the 2010 season, I got called into the office and was told ‘you are going to get retained, young AB de Villiers’. I sat alongside David Warner in that meeting.
It came as a huge surprise to me a week or two later when I realized I had been released. So the communication wasn't great back in the day, that must be different these days but it's not a nice feeling.”
The 39-year-old said it was a huge blow and he was very nervous before the auction. Fortunately, he was picked by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the auction and he finished his IPL career with them in 2021.
"You're unsure of your career, at that time in 2010 I think I only played five games in that IPL season so a lot of doubts crept up in my mind. But I did have a very good international season. I kept playing good cricket and luckily for me the auction happened and I got picked up by RCB, and it changed my life forever, so great memories with regards to that.
I was so nervous. Then I got the news from Twitter that I was picked by RCB and the next moment Virat (Kohli) called,” De Villiers said.
De Villiers said the released players should not feel disappointed as it's not the "end of the road".
"For all the released players, it's not the end of the road, keep a close eye on the auction. But if you're not picked up, it gives an opportunity to go back to the drawing board and work even harder," he added.
(PTI inputs)
