Ahead of the inaugural edition of IPL, nobody knew how the tournament would pan out. A lot of money was at stake. Much to the delight of everyone, Brendon McCullum gave a fabulous start to the tournament. In what was the first match of the tournament, McCullum went all guns blazing against a strong bowling attack of RCB.
He played a sensational knock of 158 runs off 73 balls, including 13 sixes and 10 fours. His knock powered his side to post a mammoth 222-run total in the first innings. RCB had no reply as they folded for just 82 in the second innings. Brendon’s knock laid the foundation for a successful inaugural IPL campaign.
Recently, the former New Zealand skipper recalled the incident and said that after his knock, Sourav Ganguly came up to him and told him that his life was changed forever.
“I was just a young kid back then, so I was so in awe of Shah Rukh Khan who was such a megastar. I was so out of my depth even just around the superstars in my cricket team, let alone the megastar who owned our cricket team! I don’t remember many reactions in detail, but what I do remember is what Sourav Ganguly said to me that night.”
Dada said, ‘Your life is changed forever’, and I didn’t quite know what he meant at the time, but (in hindsight), I 100% agree with him,” McCullum told KKR’s website.
McCullum also stated that his 158-run knock propelled Shah Rukh Khan to tell him that he will also be a part of KKR. McCullum remained an integral member of KKR from 2008 to 2013. Ahead of the 2014 edition of the tournament, the New Zealand player was released by the franchise. However, as fate would have it, the franchise has once again roped him as the head coach for IPL 2020.
“Shah Rukh, in the months which followed or the days and the weeks, he said. ‘you’ll always be with the Knight Riders.’
“There were times when I was with KKR, and then I got released, but we always finished on really good terms. I was always very grateful, and thankful for the opportunity that the franchise had provided for me. So when an opportunity arose again (for the role of head coach), I thought: ‘Well, Shah Rukh did say to me ‘You’ll always be very involved with KKR’ and this, I guess, is another opportunity’,” McCullum added.
