New Delhi: Former South African captain AB de Villiers revealed that Delhi Capitals (then Delhi Daredevils) didn’t keep their promise of retaining him during the 2011 IPL player’s auction. Popularly known as ABD, De Villiers played for Delhi Daredevils in the first three seasons from 2008 to 2010 before shifting his base to Royal Challengers Bangalore where he made his name.
Recalling the incident on his YouTube channel, the Mr. 360 stated that he was told that they will be retaining him for the 2011 season, but found out surprisingly that the franchise had released him.
“When I played in the 2010 season, I got called into the office and was told ‘you are going to get retained, young AB de Villiers’,” he said. “I sat alongside David Warner in that meeting. It came as a huge surprise to me a week or two later when I realised I had been released.
“So the communication wasn’t great back in the day, that must be different these days but it’s not a nice feeling,” De Villiers added before stating it came as a huge blow to him. Although De Villiers had a brilliant 2009 season, he completely flopped in the next edition.
“You’re unsure of your career, at that time in 2010 I think I only played five games in that IPL season so a lot of doubts crept up in my mind. But I did have a very good international season. I kept playing good cricket and luckily for me the auction happened and I got picked up by RCB, and it changed my life forever, so great memories with regards to that,” he added.
De Villiers also recalled when Virat Kohli called him to welcome him into the team. “I was so nervous. Then I got the news from Twitter that I was picked by RCB and the next moment Virat (Kohli) called,” he added.
