“He gave us an ultimatum that…”: KKR CEO speaks on breaking the bank for Venkatesh Iyer

IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) acquired the services of Indian all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer for a whopping fee of INR 23.75 crore on the first day of the IPL mega auction. The Kolkata-based franchise headed into the auction with no RTM cards available.

After missing out on former players like Shreyas Iyer and Mitchell Starc, the franchise went all out on Venkatesh Iyer. However, it wasn’t easy for KKR to avail the left-handed batter as the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) were as interested in the player as them.

After a fierce bidding war between both the franchises, it would be KKR who will end up snapping the player. Now, KKR CEO Venky Mysore has revealed that Iyer had given them the ultimatum to go after him in the mega auction.

“For us it was about trying to keep our core. We’ve kept six players and brought 2-3 players back from last year. that was always the kind of thinking and as far as he (Venkatesh) is concerned we definitely did’t want to find ourselves in a situation where we may not be able to bing him back,” Mysore said as per ESPNcricinfo.

“But it always balances itself. When you look at Quinton de Kock (INR 3.60 crore) and Nortje (INR 6.50 crore) that we’ve picked, it balances off in many ways. On an overall basis, it all works out,” Mysore added.

Mysore revealed that the franchise had held talks with Iyer ahead of the auction and the player had said that he would be very sad if KKR don’t go all out for him in the auction.

“They’ve proven on the field what they can do. You saw in a championship year, and one year we went to the final as well, in 2021. He (Venkatesh) was highly instrumental and terrific guy in the team. He had clearly given us an ultimatum that, ‘If you don’t pick me, I will be very sad’. So we didn’t want him to be sad, and we’re also very happy,” Mysore said.

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