Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) finally won their first IPL title on Tuesday, beating Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the 2025 final. It’s hard to believe it’s taken 18 years, especially with stars like Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers playing for them before. Both Gayle and de Villiers were there to celebrate the big win.
Abhinav Mukund, a former cricketer and now a commentator, shared something interesting about de Villiers. He mentioned that AB felt he was overpaid during his IPL career. Mukund said, I was sitting next to AB, and he told me, ‘I was overpaid.’ It’s not something you hear from a legend. He really meant it with emotion.
De Villiers explained to Mukund that he thought he received too much money compared to other players. He pointed out that marquee players like Phil Salt or Josh Hazlewood didn’t cost as much as Rs 15 crore.
During his 11 years with RCB, de Villiers was retained twice at lower amounts than many players now. In 2014, he was kept for Rs 7.50 crore and then Rs 11 crore in 2018. For the mega auction, RCB didn’t go over Rs 12.50 crore on any player but did keep Virat Kohli for a hefty Rs 21 crore. They almost landed Venkatesh Iyer for Rs 23.50 crore, but he ended up with Kolkata Knight Riders for Rs 23.75 crore.
Mukund pointed out that missing out on Venkatesh Iyer actually worked out for RCB since he only scored 142 runs in 11 matches this season. Looking back, they must be relieved they didn’t spend all that money on Venkatesh, he said. RCB ended up making smart buys later on, getting Josh Hazlewood and Jitesh Sharma, which saved them some cash for more players on day two.