Indian pacer Deepak Chahar spoke with honesty about his whopping end bid at the IPL 2022 mega auction, saying at one point even he felt “it was too much” money spent by defending champions Chennai Super Kings.
The 29-year-old ended as the second most expensive buy at the auction for the 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League. With CSK determined to have their right-arm pacer and lower-order batter back, the franchise broke the bank for him and ultimately won the bidding war.
But for Chahar, personally, the money was never an issue, he always wanted to play for the Super Kings again. The India and Rajasthan cricketer indicated he had no problem representing his beloved team at whatever prize they had him for. At one point, Chahar said, he wished the bidding stopped, and he just stayed with CSK while also hoping that they had enough in the tank for other players.
“I wanted to play for CSK because I haven’t imagined myself playing in another colour than yellow,”
he said during a Star Sports’ show for the IPL 2022 Mega Auction, having fetched his biggest pay cheque ever.
“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 crores, 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),”
he added.
Partly to do with the auction dynamics and the timing of when his name came up, Chahar’s astonishing final bid also reflected how much the virtues of loyalty, trust and familiarity are valued in the CSK set-up.
Backing experience over youngsters and trusting the tried and tested individuals have been the two integral aspects of MS Dhoni’s style of captaincy, and the franchise seems to follow that mantra without any self-doubts or hesitations.
Chahar himself said he knew CSK would go after him as he had been told by the team’s owner N Srinivasan way back in 2018 that he will be representing the team “forever”.
It meant that he never had to talk to Dhoni for a favour at the auction. The player was always assured CSK would do everything to get him back.
Saying that he “could not imagine” himself playing for any of the other nine franchises, Chahar added:
“I’ve never spoken about all this to Mahi bhai [captain MS Dhoni] or CSK management.”
“In 2018, I had met Srinivasan sir, and he has said, ‘you will play in yellow always’. So I took his word that day and since then I have never spoken about retention. I knew CSK would bid [for me].
The pace bowling allrounder has been representing CSK since the start of the 2018 edition of the Premier League, when he took 10 wickets and bowled with an economy of 7.28 to help them regain the coveted crown.
Cut to the 2021 season, where CSK proved their naysayers wrong after the previous year’s heavy struggles, he again contributed 14 wickets at 8.35 runs per over. Overall, since his CSK debut, he has taken 58 wickets with an economy rate of 7.70.
Chahar, who bowls predominantly with the new ball inside the powerplay field restriction overs, has been a key player for his team over the last four years. His presence allows Dhoni to cover the early part of the innings and also gives CSK depth in their batting.
