Spin legend Anil Kumble, who rose to unprecedented heights in cricket in national colours while also playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL), shared memories of being signed to play for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) by former owner Vijay Mallya in the 2008 auction. Kumble went under the hammer in the maiden IPL auction after failing to make the initial list of icon players. Rahul Dravid, India’s current head coach, was voted one of the RCB’s icon players, ahead of Kumble, who was called ‘Jumbo’ during his playing career.

Kumble, who, together with England’s Jim Laker and New Zealand’s Ejaz Patel, owns the record for taking all ten wickets in a single Test innings, was picked up by the RCB at his base price after Mallya stated at the auction that ‘nobody’ was to touch him since “he’s my Bangalore boy”.

“Yeah, I mean, I was the captain of India in the Test, and for some reason, I was not on the icon list, so I was auctioned off. I obviously did not participate, but my name appeared on the auction list. I recall someone telling me that when my name came up, it was not like now, when Mr Vijay Mallya stepped up and said, “He’s my Bangalore boy.” Nobody is touching him, and that was the end of any more bids. I believe it was the base price at which I was purchased, and there were no auction dynamics such as those seen today. So I was told there were no (other buyers) because the owner just stood up and said no way, no way he is going anyplace other than Bangalore,” Kumble revealed during a heart-to-heart conversation with Ravichandran Ashwin on the latter’s YouTube channel.