I Officially Hate The RTM Card, Says Preity Zinta

While most of the franchises took a caution-first approach early on in the ongoing auction for the Indian Premier League, Kings XI Punjab was an exception by a big margin and the reason for the same was the franchise co-owner, Preity Zinta.

The auction began with a bang for the eighth season’s finalists as the Bollywood actress was so excited during the auction that she bid for almost every marquee player. At one point, Kings XI Punjab had bought five consecutive players including KL Rahul for Rs 11 crore. After going for almost every player, the franchise finally landed ace off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and went on to secure the services of some big names like Yuvraj Singh, KL Rahul, Karun Nair and Aaron Finch.

Nair was signed up by the franchise for Rs 5.60 crore while the Punjab-based outfit outbid Mumbai Indians, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals to secure the services of KL Rahul. Finch, who recently scored two centuries in the ongoing ODI series against England, was bought for Rs 6.2 crore while David Miller was bought through Right to Match card after Mumbai Indians bought the hard-hitting batsman for Rs 3 crore. They also managed to sign Mayank Agarwal.

In fact, Preity was so enthusiastic that Kings XI Punjab head coach Virender Sehwag, who was also attending the auction, took to Twitter to take a funny dig at the owner.

This is not all. Kings XI Punjab could have bought some more big names outbidding other franchises but eventually lost out due to the RTM card. They would have opened their account to the very first player who was auctioned but had to wait longer because of the RTM card.

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Kings XI Punjab had bought Shikhar Dhawan 5.2 crores rupees, but at the last moment, Sunrisers Hyderabad used their RTM.  Ajinkya Rahane was also sold to Kings XI Punjab for four crores, but Rajasthan Royals used their RTM and got him back. South Africa star Faf du Plessis was sold to Kings XI Punjab too for 1.6 crores, but Chennai Super Lings used their RTM and got him back. Last but not the least, they went all out for spin sensation Rashid Khan, buying him for a whopping Rs 9 crore but once again Sunrisers Hyderabad used the RTM card to leave Preity Zinta and her team red-faced.

With so many top players getting out of Kings XI Punjab’s clutches because of the RTM card, Preity could not stop herself from expressing her disappointment over Twitter.

“I officially hate the #RTM card ! Grrrrrrrrr ?,” she tweeted.

An avid cricket lover, I just love this game more than anything. Writing about cricket keeps me closer to the game.