"Overpaid...": RCB Legend AB De Villiers' Shock Revelation After IPL 2025 Triumph
Former Royal Challengers Bengaluru star AB de Villiers' interesting remark was revealed by former India cricketer and broadcaster Abhinav Mukund.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) clinched their first Indian Premier League (IPL) title on Tuesday, as they beat Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the IPL 2025 final. Despite having had exceptional T20 cricketers like Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers in the past, it was the first time in 18 years that RCB won the title. While Gayle and de Villiers were present to celebrate with RCB, former India cricketer-turned-broadcaster Abhinav Mukund revealed an interesting remark that de Villiers had made to him, where he had said that he felt he was overpaid during his time as a player in the IPL.
"I was sitting next to AB de Villiers and he told me something that I don't think any legend in the IPL has said. But he genuinely meant it, he said it from a place of emotion. He said 'I was overpaid'," Mukund revealed.
"I'm overpaid, I thought I was overpaid because I feel like all of the other elements that you're talking about, right? Where you're able to buy so many other superstar players, all those match winners you're talking about. The highest amount of money that they spent on was for someone like a Phil Salt or Josh Hazlewood. They didn't cross 15 (Rs 15 crore)," was what de Villiers had told Mukund, as revealed by the latter.
De Villiers was retained twice by RCB ahead of a mega auction over the course of his 11-year stint with the franchise. In an era where valuations where lesser, de Villiers was retained for Rs 7.50 crore and Rs 11 crore in 2014 and 2018 respectively.
While RCB did not spend Rs 12.50 crore on any player at the mega auction, they did retain Virat Kohli for Rs 21 crore. They also went up to Rs 23.50 crore to try and get Venkatesh Iyer, who landed up in Kolkata Knight Riders for Rs 23.75 crore.
Mukund stated that not getting Venkatesh ended up working in RCB's favour, given that he scored just 142 runs in 11 matches in IPL 2025.
"In hindsight, they must be thinking, thank God we didn't go all the way from Venkatesh Iyer. Because their last losing bid was Venkatesh Iyer. And the next three buys were Josh Hazlewood, Jitesh Sharma and I think Phil Salt. Those were the next three buys. And they saved so much in the bank for day two when Bhuvneshwar Kumar came in," said Mukund.
AB de Villiers
Royal Challengers Bengaluru