3 most expensive players at the Lanka Premier League 2023 auctionÂ
The auction for the 2023 edition of the Lanka Premier League (LPL) took place at the Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo on Wednesday, June 14.
As many as 360 players - capped and uncapped - including overseas stars registered for the inaugural LPL auction. However, due to the available squad sizes, the auction, which was conducted by Charu Sharma, saw a total of 94 players getting sold among all the five franchises.
The auction saw some exciting bidding wars as teams vied to secure talented cricketers for the tournament, which is scheduled to take place from July 30 to August 22, 2023.
In this listicle, we will take a look at the top three most expensive purchases at the recently concluded Lanka Premier League 2023 player auction.
#3 $76,000 - Dhananjaya de Silva and Binura Fernando
Dhananjaya de Silva created history as he became the first-ever player to get sold at the LPL auction on Wednesday. The well-renowned Sri Lankan all-rounder was snapped up by the Dambulla Aura for a fee of $76,000.
The Dambulla franchise also paid the same amount of $76,000 to acquire the services of Binura Fernando. He is a tall left-arm pacer, who hits the deck hard and also has a great yorker in his arsenal.
Both Dhananjaya and Binura are the joint-third-most expensive players at the auction.
#2 $80,000 - Charith Asalanka
Another Sri Lankan star who bagged huge bucks at the auction was Charith Asalanka. The hard-hitting left-hander was picked up by the defending champions Jaffna Kings for an amount of $80,000. With this, Asalanka became the most expensive batter at the auction.
His addition makes Jaffna Kings one of the best batting sides, who now possess the likes of Asalanka, David Miller, Shoaib Malik, Chris Lynn, and Rahmanullah Gurbaz.
#1 $92,000 - Dilshan Madushanka
Dilshan Madushanka, another remarkable talent from Sri Lanka, grabbed headlines when he became the most expensive player at the just-completed LPL 2023 auction.
While Jaffna Kings might have lost Binura Fernando to Dambulla Kings but they added Madushanka for a record fee of $92,000.
Coming in with a base price of only $20,000, the left-arm pacer started a bidding war between Jaffna Kings and Galle Titans before the former prevailed in the contest.
Madushanka, who has 12 T20I wickets to his name, has been in red-hot form currently. In the recent three-match ODI series against South Africa A, the 22-year took nine wickets and gained traction from the franchises.