I didn’t tell anybody to give me Rs 16 crore

Making it clear that the ‘Most Expensive Player’ tagline doesn’t create any pressure on him, out-of-favour India veteran Yuvraj Singh said that he “didn’t tell anyone to give him” the money that he commanded at the IPL cricket tournament’s auctions earlier this year.

Asked if being paid an unbelievable Rs 16 crore is creating pressure on him, Yuvraj was dismissive. “Not really. I was sleeping when the auction was going on. And I didn’t tell anybody to give me that money. Whatever money would have given to me, I would have played IPL,” Yuvraj said on the eve of Delhi daredevils’ match against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

The 33-year-old all-rounder also didn’t want to entertain thoughts in the line of whether this would be a launchpad for his India comeback. “I am enjoying my cricket at the moment and I am not thinking too far ahead. Hopefully, as a team we want to get Daredevils back on track.

The win in the last match was needed to boost the morale after 11 defeats. In the last game, I got a lot of overs to plan my innings as I needed some time out there in the middle,” said the stylish southpaw.

He said that his relationship with Gary Kirsten is still the “same” as it used to be when the South African coached the Indian national team. “It’s the same relationship that we had when he was the India coach.

We have a great understanding and somehow Gary gets the best out of me. When he was the India coach, he was managing only 16 players but in a franchise, you need to manage 25 players,” he said.