5 most expensive buys in Mumbai Indians’ history
When Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) headed by Mukesh Ambani bought the Mumbai franchise for $111.9 million and named it the Mumbai Indians, it was the IPL’s most expensive team.
It didn’t have a great first couple of seasons but has slowly staked its claim to being one of the best teams in the IPL. Mumbai Indians is also one of the most affluent teams in the franchise in terms of creating a splash almost every year with some extremely expensive buys.
Over the years, eyebrows have been raised for cash dispensed to buy players like Glenn Maxwell and Dinesh Karthik who didn’t go on to really have a massive impact.
However, at the end of the day, the fact that Mumbai Indians under Rohit Sharma have won the coveted silverware justifies their lavish spending. We now take a look at some of the most expensive buys of the Mumbai Indians over the last 8 years, either through auction or through player retention:
#5 Glenn Maxwell – Rs. 5.4 crores
Harbhajan Singh’s original price was a meagre $350,000, way below the price attracted by Sanath Jayasuriya, who was purchased by MI in the first IPL auction for a whopping $975,000, a number that is still considered massive in IPL parlance. To put things into perspective, Jos Buttler was bought for a big price tag and it summed up to $560,000.
In the past, Corey Anderson and Michael Hussey were massive buys for MI. They were bought in 2014 for $750,000 and $833,000 respectively. Harbhajan’s stock value kept increasing because of retention across multiple seasons. Currently, he is one of MI’s highest paid cricketers with a salary of 8 crore rupees, although the price deduction for the franchise is less than that.
However, one of MI’s biggest splashes was the million dollar baby – Glenn Maxwell. Maxwell was purchased in the 2013 auction for a whopping $1million (5.4 crore rupees) although he barely managed to get off the bench. Maxwell’s best year came later for Kings XI Punjab in 2014.