Chennai: Deepak Chahar, one of Team India’s consistent performers in white ball cricket, wasn’t one of the four players retained by Chennai Super Kings for IPL-15, ahead of the mega players’ auction.
The four-time IPL champions, however, went all out in the bidding war for Chahar – a skilful swing bowler and useful lower-order-order batsman – on the first day of the auction and ultimately succeeded in retaining his services for a whopping price of Rs 14 crore!
As staggering as that astronomical figure is the revelation that Chahar actually wanted Chennai Super Kings to stop bidding for him after his price had zoomed to Rs 13 crore!
The reason? He was concerned that such a high price might come in the way of CSK building a strong team for the upcoming 15th edition of IPL.
“I wanted to play for CSK because I haven’t imagined myself playing in other colour than yellow,” Chahar told Star Sports. “(But) At one point, I thought it (the bid price) was too much. As a CSK player, I also want to build a good team. So after they spent 13 crore, I actually wanted the bidding to stop so I can go to CSK quickly and then we can buy some other players (with the money saved),” said the most expensive Indian bowler at an IPL auction.
Chahar had said in 2018 that franchise owner N Srinivasan told him he will play in yellow always. Since then, Chahar had never brought up the topic of retention with the team management or captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
“I’ve never spoken about all this to Mahi bhai (captain MS Dhoni) or CSK management,” Chahar said.
The 29-year-old Chahar, who was bought by CSK for Rs 80 lakh ahead of the 2018 IPL, will represent the yellow brigade for the fifth straight season.
