Former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) cricketers Chris Gayle and Robin Uthappa have allegedly slammed the franchise for not backing other players like Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers as well. Notably, Kohli (238 matches, 7048 runs) and de Villiers (157 matches, 4522 runs) are the top two run-scorers for the Bangalore-based franchise. Meanwhile, Chris Gayle scored 3420 runs and 5 tons for RCB, that too, of just 91 matches as well.
Uthappa, on the other hand, struggled during his time at Bangalore, scoring just 706 runs off 40 matches as well. Indian Sports journalist Himanshu Pareek has recently shared a post on Twitter, saying former Team India cricketer Robin Uthappa and Chris Gayle are unsatisfied over the quality of treatment towards players other than ex-captain Virat Kohli and now retired AB de Villiers.
The post reads Chris Gayle as saying, “Yeah, players do not feel like a part of the team in RCB. They (the franchise) need to learn how to work on words like TRUST and LOYALTY”.
Uthappa: RCB is more like only about Virat and AB de Villiers.
Chris Gayle: Yeah! Players don't feel like a part of the team in RCB. They need to learn how to work on words like TRUST and Loyalty.#CricketTwitter#IPL2023
— Himanshu Pareek (@Sports_Himanshu) January 27, 2023
While the source of the comments has not been revealed yet. The franchise has been infamous for changing its team combination far too much, and a lot of big players have lacked backing from the franchise in the past as well. These also include Australia all-rounder Shane Watson, the New Zealand duo of Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum, KL Rahul, de Kock and Jacques Kallis just to name a few. However, in a shocking move, leggie Yuzvendra Chahal (139 wickets) was also not retained at last season’s IPL auction despite being the most successful bowler for the team as well.
Since the alleged comments have come from Robin Uthappa and Chris Gayle, it’ll be interesting to see if other former players join the discussion over Royal Challengers Bangalore’s treatment of their players as well.
