Veteran cricketer Robin Uthappa has opened up about a difficult phase in his cricket career, the early years of the IPL, especially IPL 2009.
The wicket-keeper batter said he had been going through depression in 2009 when he was with the Royal Challengers Bangalore. He explained that he struggled through the season. He also added that he heard from Mumbai Indians that he would not be able to play if he did not sign the transfer papers.
“I was going through something in my personal life and I was completely into depression during my first season with RCB. I didn’t play well even for one game that season. The only game in which I did well was when I was dropped and picked again. I played thinking that I really needed to do something in this match. Someone from MI had told me that if I didn’t sign the transfer papers, I’d not get to play in the XI for MI,” Uthappa told in R Ashwin’s YouTube channel.
“I feel like I played during the best phase of RCB. It was a phase in IPL where the first year was a lot of fun because everyone was finding ground. I think from the second year onwards, it became really big. So, I was along with Zaheer Khan and Manish Pandey. I was one of the first people to be transferred in IPL. For me, it became extremely difficult because my loyalties were completely laid out with MI at that point. It happened a month before the IPL and I refused to sign the transfer papers,” he added.
Uthappa had turned out for the Mumbai Indians in 2008 and was transferred to RCB in the next season. He managed to score 175 runs in 15 games for RCB in IPL 2009, with just one half-century to his name despite the franchise reaching the finals of the edition. Uthappa however rectified things with respect to his batting, scoring 374 runs in 16 games in 2010.
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