JOIN USChris Gayle has proved to be quite a bargain buy for Kings XI Punjab in the ongoing Indian Premier League but co-owner Ness Wadia on Friday revealed that the team almost lost the destructive opener at the auction, thinking it had run out of cash.
Gayle had unexpectedly gone unsold twice before KXIP bought him for his base price of Rs 2 crore. Wadia explained how the franchise got lucky with the Jamaican.
"We had only Rs 2.1 crore left and if we had bid for Chris earlier (at the auction) and another team came up with a counter bid, we did not have the money to buy him. Luckily, no other team bid for him and we were more than happy to get third time lucky," Wadia told PTI.
KXIP, who had retained just one player in Axar Patel before the auction, spent big bucks in their bid to build a team for the future. Gayle was their final buy and the Rs 2 crore they spent on him meant they were left with just Rs 10 lakh, using almost their entire purse of Rs 67.5 crore.
Two months later, Gayle has proved all his critics wrong with two half-centuries and a sensational 104 in four innings. He has even exceeded the expectations of team mentor Virender Sehwag, who had said that the Rs 2 crore spent on Gayle and Yuvraj Singh will be recovered even if they both won them a couple of games.
The 38-year-old has been exceptional so far but a big knock from the 36-year-old Yuvraj is still awaited. In fact, the stylish southpaw was dropped from the playing eleven against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Thursday night.
"Yuvi is not among the runs at the moment but we hope that he will bounce back. He is of good value to the franchise and that is why we got him back," said Wadia referring to Yuvraj, who was KXIP captain in the first two seasons.