Royal Challengers Bangalore have opted to retire the jersey numbers of previous stars Ab de Villiers (17) and Chris Gayle ahead of the 16th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) (333).
The two legendary cricketers have been with the club for a long time and have brought a lot of success to the franchise by playing some beautiful cricket in the cash-rich league. Because of their influence and contributions to the franchise, the management has chosen to induct them into the RCB Hall of Fame.
Incidentally, the Hall of Fame event will take place on March 26 during the RCB Unbox ceremony at Bangalore’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Fans have already begun purchasing tickets in anticipation of a sold-out concert. At the same time, the club will unveil their new uniform for the next season.
Jersey numbers 17 and 333 will be retired forever as a tribute to @ABdeVilliers17 and @henrygayle, when we induct the legends of RCB into the Hall of Fame, at the #RCBUnbox presented by Walkers and Co.#PlayBold #ನಮ್ಮRCB pic.twitter.com/Ka2SaORSel
— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) March 17, 2023
Meanwhile, the organisation stated on Twitter that Gayle and de Villiers’ jerseys will be retired as a monument to their time at RCB.
Therefore, when the decision to induct them into the Hall of Fame was made public last year, former captain Virat Kohli sent them a special greeting in which he congratulated them for their significant contribution to the club.
“AB has genuinely transformed the game of cricket with his inventiveness, intelligence, and sportsmanship, which fully represents the RCB Play Bold attitude. It’s an honour for me to be doing this for both of you. We witnessed footage of you changing the way the IPL is played throughout the years. “Two guys who have had a significant effect on the IPL and RCB being where they are now,” Virat added, as reported by News18.
Importantly, de Villiers joined Bangalore in 2011 and scored 4491 runs in 156 games for them. Gayle on the other hand went unsold in the 2011 IPL super auction but RCB eventually signed him as the season proceeded. Throughout his seven years with the team, the southpaw scored 3163 runs, including an individual best of 175*, which remains the greatest score by an IPL player.
