AB de Villiers' shock revelation with ‘I was overpaid’ remark; new IPL champions RCB justify letting go Venkatesh Iyer

Former South African AB de Villiers felt he was 'overpaid' during his 11-year stay at Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The revelation came after RCB's maiden IPL title on Tuesday, beating Punjab Kings in the final in Ahmedabad with former Indian cricketer Abhinav Mukund spilling the details.

Following RCB's win, Mukund revealed a conversation with De Villiers. “I was sitting next to AB de Villiers and he told me something that I don't think any legend in the IPL has said. But he genuinely meant it, he said it from a place of emotion," Mukund told broadcasters.

"He said I was overpaid. I'm overpaid, I thought I was overpaid because I feel like all of the other elements that you're talking about, right? Where you're able to buy so many other superstar players, all those match winners you're talking about. The highest amount of money that they spent on (for IPL 2025) was for someone like a Phil Salt or Josh Hazlewood. They didn't cross 15,” added Mukund.

Having started his IPL journey with Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) in 2008, De Villiers shifted base to RCB for ₹5 crore and was retained twice in 2014 ( ₹9.5 crore) and 2018 ( ₹11 crore) seasons. The right-hander played till 2021, all at RCB since 2011.

How RCB justified by not picking Venkatesh?

During the IPL 2025 mega auction, Venkatesh Iyer was the last player that RCB failed to rope in despite going all out for the Madhya Pradesh batter. Eventually, the left-hander went to his parent franchise Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for a whopping ₹23.75 crore.

However, Iyer turned out to be RCB's lucky escape as the newly-crowed IPL champions used that money to buy Josh Hazlewood ( ₹12.50 crore) and Phil Salt ( ₹11.50 crore). Both Hazlewood and Salt made crucial impacts in ending RCB's 18-year title drought. While ended the season with 403 runs, Hazlewood returned with 22 wickets. In comparison, Iyer contributed with 142 runs in 11 matches.

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