IPL Auction 2017: Most expensive players

Yuvraj Singh remains the most expensive player in IPL history at 16 crore

The IPL auction caught the eye in the very first edition when the star-studded room filled with Bollywood celebrities like Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty went head-to-head against business veterans like Vijay Mallya and N Srinivasan to acquire the services of the country’s most-wanted properties, the cricketers.

It was almost borne out of fantasy. Fans across the country were glued to the television speculating and urging their team to go for their favourite stars. MS Dhoni was one of the most sought after stars in the first year, and every team tried to sign India’s captain at that stage, but the CSK eventually prevailed. That all-out, everyone against each other ‘war’ would become a trend as bidding wars became commonplace at the IPL auction.

While some teams would strategise and only go after a few of their targets like the Sunrisers Hyderabad and the Chennai Superkings, teams like the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Royal Challenge Bangalore would often bid for a number of players just to increase the price and effectively reduce their opponents’ budget.

In IPL’s 10-year history, Yuvraj Singh holds the record for being the most expensive player of all time at 16 crore when the Delhi Daredevils signed him in 2015.

In 2017, these stars saw some cutthroat action as team owners desperately looked to secure their services.

Here are the most expensive buys in 2017.

#5 Pat Cummins – Delhi Daredevils – 4.5 crore (Base price – 2 crore)

Delhi Daredevils were in the mood to do some serious business in this year’s auction and did not mess around right from the beginning. They had identified 23-year-old Australian Pat Cummins as one of their top targets and were willing to spend 4.5 crore on him.

They got into the bidding right from the start and engaged in a war with the Sunrisers Hyderabad that saw his price shoot up to 4.5 crore from his base price of 2 crore.

The Delhi pace arsenal now boasts of Kagiso Rabada, Pat Cummins, Mohammed Shami, Zaheer Khan, Chris Morris and Carlos Brathwaite. Absolutely frightening!