IPL 2018 Auction: Five major talking points
When Richard Madley announces a player's name, expectations soar high. Fans anticipate a big sum, while the owners expect a good track record of those players. Even players hope that one of the eight franchises comes up with the opening bid for them.
Such is the euphoria during an IPL auction that it keeps the fans guessing until the bid for a player is finally won by a franchise. The two-day mega auction took place at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Bengaluru. A big pool of 580 players comprising top-quality stars and young emerging players, went under the hammer. 361 of those were Indians.
169 players were sold during the two-day event out of the 182 available slots. 56 of those were the overseas players. A total of Rs.4,31,70,00,000 was spent by the eight franchises. The magnitude of the auction was massive, considering the fact that the teams were allowed to retain a maximum of three former players.
The Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Daredevils, Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore retained three players each, while the Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad retained two players apiece.
The Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab retained only one player each. The maximum squad size allowed was 25 while the minimum was 18, out of which eight can be the overseas players.
As expected by many of the fans, Ben Stokes emerged as themMost expensive player in this year's auctions, a two in a row for the Englishman. He was bought by the Rajasthan Royals franchise for a whopping Rs.12.5 crores.
Jaydev Unadkat was the costliest Indian buy, also being bought for Rs.11.5 crores by the Jaipur-based franchise. Krunal Pandya was the most expensive uncapped player, as the Mumbai Indians bought him for Rs.8.8 crores.
Let us now look at what made the headlines during the two-day mega event.