Sunil Narine is in line to become the second overseas player ever to cross the total wages’ tally of 100 crores in the IPL. The West Indies mystery spinner, who has not played international cricket for a long time, has recently been retained by KKR for 6 crore INR ahead of IPL 2022 mega auction.
Narine’s total wages from the IPL before this retention was around about 95 crore INR and now with the retention, he has crossed the tally of 100 crores and has become only the second overseas player to do so after AB de Villiers who recently retired after years of services to RCB.
KKR is the only team Sunil Narine has played for in his entire IPL career so far. He first came into the limelight with his heroics in the 2011 Champions League, where he was playing for Trinidad and Tobago. He then attended the trials of KKR, where the then KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir insisted the management to fetch him from the auction.
Gambhir’s vision turned out accurate as Narine proved to be one of the best ever spinners in IPL history and within a year, he played a critical role with the ball in KKR’s championship-winning campaign in 2012, where they beat CSK in the IPL final to lift their first-ever trophy.
A couple of years later, Sunil Narine replicated it under Gambhir’s leadership again as KKR won another title in 2014. Ever since Narine has been on a roller coaster ride with his action being reported and him losing his place in the KKR’s first XI for a brief period of time, but he never lost his KKR contract.
Sunil Narine was one of the main reasons why KKR reached the final of IPL 2021
Sunil Narine was one of the vital cogs in KKR’s campaign in the previous IPL season as well, where they turned their position around from the bottom of the table to top 4 and eventually to the final, where, although they got beaten by CSK, it was still one of their most memorable campaigns ever.
There was hardly any game in the second half of the previous IPL where Narine went for more than 7 runs an over in his quota of 4 and when he was retained for only 6 crore INR ahead of IPL 2022, many were of the opinion that he was massively underpaid, given the value he brings to KKR.
KKR had the West Indies allrounder Andre Russell, the Indian mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy and the Indian seam-bowling allrounder, Venkatesh Iyer, as their first three retentions, while Narine was the fourth.
