Ex-India pacer Praveen Kumar has given an explosive media interview in which he has made some shocking claims. While he said that most bowlers of his time used to tamper the ball with Pakistan bowlers doing a bit more than the others, the swing bowler who played for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the inaugural season of the Indian Premier Legaue (IPL) also alleged that ex-IPL chairman Lalit Modi threatened to end his career.
He said that he did not want to play for RCB in the first season as Bangalore was far away from his place and he did not like the food on offer there either. Moreover, he was not very fluent in English.
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"I did not want to play for RCB because Bangalore was quite far away from my place, I didn't know English, and the food was not to my liking. Delhi is quite close to Meerut, which would have allowed me to travel to my home once in a while. However, there was a person who made me sign a paper. I did not know it was the contract. I told them I wanted to play for Delhi and not Bangalore. Lalit Modi called me and threatened to end my career," Praveen said while interacting with journalist Saurabh Dwivedi during Lallantop's show "Guest In The Newsroom".
Kumar also shed light on how he narrowly missed out on being part of India's 2011 World Cup-winnings squad. The former speedster who hails from Meerut was initially named in the squad but an elbow injury ruled him out of the tournament which India went on to win. An injury to Praveen meant S Sreesanth ended up with a World Cup winner's medal round his neck.