5 cricketers you didn’t know played in the IPL
These players did take part in India's premier T20 Cricket League.
India’s shining success at the inaugural World Cup and rebel ‘Indian Cricket League’ (ICL) inspired Lalit Modi and BCCI to come up with the spectacle of ‘Indian Premier League’. The carnival of cricket began in 2008 and soon became the greatest show in cricket.
Since 2008, 11 editions of the IPL have been played. The 2009 edition was played in South Africa due to the Indian general elections while in 2014, UAE was the host for the first few matches. Even the number of teams participating in the competition has varied from eight to ten. The sides have undergone tremendous transformations with the routine player transfers and auctions taking place every year.
Keeping track of all these activities can be tedious, and some of these can easily be forgotten. The initial years of the IPL consisted of some of the names which we won’t associate with the T20 cricket today. They played in a season or two and moved on thereafter. Here are five such cricketers who you won’t recollect playing in the IPL.
#5 Wasim Jaffer
Wasim Jaffer is a giant in the Indian domestic cricket. The 40-year-old veteran has piled up 11,000-plus first-class runs and is the current leading run-getter of all-time in Indian first-class cricket. Many Indian cricket fans will remember Jaffer as the stable and sturdy Test opener of India. But do you recall him playing in the flashy and multi-coloured uniform for an IPL franchise?
Royal Challengers Bangalore’s inaugural season in the IPL was a disaster. Their team was loaded with classical players who were yet to adapt to the demands of T20 cricket. One of those classical players selected was Wasim Jaffer.
Jaffer played a total of eight IPL matches in first two seasons (2008-09). He scored a half-century in his second game as he mustered 50(33) against Chennai Super Kings. He scored 8(9) in his last game against Rajasthan Royals and he never played in the IPL again. His record stands at 130 runs from eight matches with a strike rate of 107.