Former IPL chairman Lalit Modi has revisited one of the most dramatic stories from IPL history, recalling how Chris Gayle, unsold at the 2011 auction, allegedly called him in frustration and asked for help finding a team. Speaking on The Overlap Cricket with Michael Vaughan, Modi narrated the episode as the start of Gayle’s transformation from an overlooked name in the auction pool to one of the most destructive batters the league has seen.
According to Modi, the call came while he was already back in London after leaving the IPL. He said Gayle was upset at being ignored in the auction and wanted to know why no franchise had picked him. Modi’s response, as he told it, was blunt. He said Gayle had not done enough in the league up to that point and that IPL had always been a tournament where reputation meant little without performance.
“You know, there was a time in 2011; I remember very clearly, I had just left the IPL, come back to London, and my good friend, Chris Gayle, wasn’t picked up at the auction, and I get a call from him.”
“Nobody’s picked me up at the auction. I said, you didn’t perform. IPL is all about performing. You played for the Kolkata Knight Riders. My feeling is, you didn’t perform, you can perform, but you just got lazy about it,” recollected Lalit Modi.
He further said Gayle then told him he was under pressure and badly needed a way back in. In his recounting, that desperation pushed him to start calling franchises, though he claimed the early responses were all negative. “He said, I really wanted it, I have a huge debt, and I think I need it to pay my bills. I made a few calls. Call 1, 2,3. Everybody said no.”
“Go there, perform”: Modi recounts the moment Gayle’s IPL career turned
Modi further described how he then approached Vijay Mallya and urged him to give Chris Gayle an opportunity. As he recalled it, an injury had created an opening in the RCB setup, though the message was clear. Gayle would have to earn his place with performances.
“I went across the road to Vijay Mallya’s house. I said, Vijay, give this bloke a try. He said, you know, I think Nathan’s been injured or something. Nathan was injured. He said, I have an opening. But I’ll pay him if he performs,” Modi narrated.
What followed turned Gayle’s IPL story on its head. Modi presented that shift as a direct consequence of hunger, timing, and execution once the chance finally arrived.
“I told Chris, go there, perform. He set world records. He wrote his chequebook. He wrote his own like. He never looked back after that. He got a multi-million dollar contract. He went and performed, and it was the hunger in him that made him do it,” Modi concluded.
