"Lalit Modi Wanted To End My Career.."- Praveen Kumar Makes Shocking Claim
Published - 09 Jan 2024, 12:57 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:25 AM
Former Indian National team bowler Praveen Kumar in a recent interview with Lallantop, claimed that former Chairman of IPL Lalit Modi threatened and wanted to end his career after the right-arm medium pacer had expressed his desire to play for Delhi Capitals before eventually representing the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Praveen Kumar who is regarded as one of India’s best swing bowlers made a lot of revelations about himself and his career in that particular interview. He spoke about altercations with fans during net sessions, and life after retirement and also shed light on alcohol consumption during playing days.
Among the wide range of topics was the former IPL Chair Lalit Modi, a figure that helped the BCCI constitute the Indian Premier League before it became the richest cricketing league in the world. Praveen Kumar claimed that Lalit Modi threatened to put an end to his career after the bowler refused to sign for the RCB.
The Meerut-born medium pacer stated that he was reluctant to play for the Bangalore-based outfit because of the location’s distance from his hometown in UP with another major reason being his inability to speak in English. The 3rd major reason was the cuisine and South Indian delicacy in Bangalore, something Praveen Kumar doesn’t like much as he is a North Indian lad.
For all those reasons, Praveen wanted to join Delhi Daredevils (now Capitals) instead. He preferred Delhi over RCB because it was closer to where he resided in Meerut and seeing his family now and then would have become easier.
But it was not the case and he could not even play a single season for the Delhi-based franchise. In his IPL career, Praveen Kumar played for teams like RCB, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Punjab Kings, and the Gujarat Lions. He racked up 90 wickets in 119 matches across the 10 seasons he played from 2008-2017.
“Someone Made Me Sign A Paper..”- Praveen Kumar On How He Signed His First IPL Contract
While elaborating the whole story, Praveen Kumar claimed that he unknowingly signed an IPL contract with RCB. As he gave his signature, he thought it might just be a paper but never in his wildest imagination did he think that anyone could fool him into signing for RCB.
After finding out the truth, Praveen Kumar would express his views against it and that was when Lalit Modi would call him and threaten to put a full stop to his career.
“I didn’t want to play for RCB because Bangalore was quite far away from my place, I didn’t know English, and the food was not to my liking. Delhi is quite close to Meerut, which would have allowed me to travel to my home once in a while. However, there was a person who made me sign a paper. I did not know it was the contract. I told them I wanted to play for Delhi and not Bangalore. Lalit Modi called me and threatened to end my career.” – Praveen Kumar said.
