It’s that time of the year, where players from all the teams participating in IPL are up for auction. Big names getting traded by teams hoping to have a new player pool to better their chances at winning the championship, new faces hoping to make an impression should they be given the chance. Here are the highlights of the first session of the IPL Player Auction 2017.
Kings XI Punjab had the biggest budget of a whopping Rs. 23.1 crores, closely followed by Royal Challengers Bangalore having Rs. 22.8 crores. Mumbai Indians had the least purse with Rs. 11.5 crores but they have about 20 players up for auction so they will be looking to break even. Such was the case for Kolkata Knight riders too. Bangalore, the Garden City of India, was in for an eventful day with the huge breaking news from yesterday where M.S. Dhoni was axed as captain of Pune and Australian Steve Smith getting named as his replacement.
Richard Madley with his gavel started the proceedings. New Zealand all rounder was the first player to go up for bidding with a base price of Rs. 50 lakhs. He remained unsold during the bid. He was immediately followed by England’s Eoin Morgan with a base price of Rs. 2 crores and he was snagged for his base price by Kings XI Punjab.
After a few bids with players going for their base prices or a little more, it was the big man from England Ben Stokes’ turn. He started with a base price of Rs. 2 crores. Action ensued as Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore all splashed out huge money trying to land him. He was finally sold to Pune for a whopping Rs. 14.5 crores, becoming the highest international player to be sold, surpassing Australian Shane Watson’s previous record price of Rs. 9.5 crores. At this point, Pawan Negi was the highest Indian going for Rs. 1 crore to Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Another spell of players went unsold and a few were sold at their base prices. RCB had another high profile signing in fast bowler Tymal Mills, a prospect from England with huge potential. He started at his base price of Rs. 50 lakhs with Punjab and Mumbai starting their respective bids. RCB jumped in and strong armed other teams with their ambitious bids and finally landed him for Rs. 12 crores. Australian Mitchell Johnson was acquired for his base price by Mumbai where he played for them during the 2013 edition. Fast bowlers like Ishant Sharma and Trent Boult who were tipped to be big signings went unsold.
T. Natrajan, a fast bowler from Tamil Nadu was up for bid later on. Pune, Punjab, and Hyderabad vied for the player with Punjab coming out on top shelling out Rs. 3 crores to sign him. Gujarat Lions, the new inclusion for this season’s tournament, found their first signing in Nathu Singh. Kolkata then acquired England pace bowler Chris Woakes for Rs. 4.2 crores.
Here ended the first session of the auction at around 1:00 P.M., with everyone dispersing for lunch. The second session was scheduled to begin at 2:00 P.M.
