"I Have Debt": Chris Gayle Told Lalit Modi After Going Unsold In IPL. Then A Turnaround

Former Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Lalit Modi claimed that he requested former Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) owner Vijay Mallya to include Chris Gayle in his team after the West Indies legend went unsold in the auction. Gayle, who played for Kolkata Knight Riders in 2009 and 2010, did not find any takers in the IPL 2011 auction. However, Lalit Modi said that he received a call from the West Indies international where he requested the then IPL chairman to find him a team as he had to pay off his debts. As a result, Lalit Modi approached Mallya, and he decided to take Gayle in place of the injured Dirk Nannes.

"I had just left the IPL, come back to London, and my good friend Chris Gayle wasn't picked up at the auction. I get a call from him that nobody's picked me up at the auction. I said, you didn't perform. IPL is all about performing. You played for the Kolkata Knight Riders, and it is my feeling that you didn't perform. You can perform, but you just got lazy. He said, 'I have a huge debt coming and I need to pay my bills.' I made a few calls. Call one, two, three -- everybody said no.

"I went across the road to Vijay Mallya's house. I said, Vijay, give this bloke a try. He said, you know, I think Nannes has been injured or something. He said, I have an opening, but I'll pay him if he performs. I told Chris, go there and perform. He wrote his own chequebook. He wrote his own life. He never looked back after that. He got a multi-million dollar contract," Lalit Modi said in a podcast with former England cricket team skipper Michael Vaughan.

Gayle went on to play for RCB till 2017, and in 2011, which is when he even won the Orange Cap after scoring 608 runs in 12 matches.

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Chris Gayle Royal Challengers Bengaluru Cricket