'He just broke down in tears' - Brad Hogg recalls Pravin Tambe's emotional speech after IPL 2013 match-fixing saga

The cricketing world was left shocked during the 2013 Indian Premier League (IPL) when it came to light that three Rajasthan Royals (RR) players were sent behind the bars on the charges of alleged spot-fixing. The Royals were about to end their IPL 2013 when the incident happened.

Nine years after the controversy, former RR spinner Brad Hogg has now opened up and hailed his former teammate Pravin Tambe‘s powerful speech during their tough time in 2013. The Australian veteran spinner hailed Tambe as a “true inspiration” and a “great” of the game in terms of his willpower to not give up.

‘We still have to keep going for Rajasthan Royals’ – Tambe said during his speech

Speaking on his YouTube channel on Tambe’s movie, ‘Kaun Pravin Tambe?’, Hogg talked about the “emotional” speech that moved the Royals ahead of their final group stage game in 2013 in Hyderabad.

“There was one time with Rajasthan Royals. We were in Mumbai and we went through the match-fixing saga. I’m not going to mention the players but we got on the bus after playing Mumbai and the next morning to go to Hyderabad. 3-to 4 players were not on that bus, they’d been arrested. We got to Hyderabad and there were cameras everywhere and we just wanted to get out of the bus and go to our rooms,” Hogg said.

“Then coach called us down to sit around the pool and discuss the situation and asked how everyone was feeling.  Then the questions went around and when it came to Pravin he just broke down in tears. The opportunity of playing at the highest level on TV had just been tarnished by the actions of three other players. And that little emotional speech his answer all turned everyone to say that we’ve got to keep going and we still go it to play for Rajasthan Royals,” Hogg added.

Talking about Tambe’s numbers in IPL, the 50-year-old has played 33 matches in which he had scalped 28 wickets at an average of 30.46. He was quite economical as well bowling at an economy of 7.75. Tambe represented several franchises in IPL including RR, Gujarat Lions, and Sunrisers Hyderabad.