"The first bidding war of many in the IPL" - Auctioneer Richard Madley recalls MS Dhoni's purchase from 2008

Richard Madley is the architect of IPL auctions (Credit: IPL/BCCI)

Celebrated IPL auctioneer Richard Madley has revealed how Chennai Super Kings (CSK) snared former India captain MS Dhoni in the IPL 2008 auction.

Dhoni, who had just led India to the T20 World Cup title in 2007, was the hottest property with the IPL taking place. Madley, who was present as the auctioneer, recollected how the first set of players to come out of the bag fared in the first ever auction that took place on February 20.

In a conversation with Ravichandran Ashwin on his YouTube channel, Richard Madley said:

"I remember the second player coming out of the bag that day was Shane Warne. I thought okay here's Warnie and this will be interesting, his base price was I think around 400000 US dollars. That's what he sold for at his base price to Rajasthan Royals and I thought at that time that was a smart move. It's a smart move because at the end of hs career but someone remarkably successful, experienced, charismatic and who was a leader. They bought Shane Warne and what did Rajasthan Royals do in IPL one, they won it."

Just found my one and only auction sheet for the historic first ever #VIVOIPL auction in 2008.
@msdhoni sold to @ChennaiIPL A rare piece of cricket memorabilia
Will be watching #CSKvMI on @hotstarUK
#CricketMeriJaan #WhistlePodu #VIVOIPLFinal https://t.co/5M5qY2tPy5

The 64-year-old Richard Madley added:

"For the next 10 years, I watched Rajasthan Royals be the coolest bidders in the room. They never got excited, Manoj Badale was just cool and a pattern started to emerge. Then out of the bag came the man himself, the ultimate all-rounder Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and there we saw the first bidding war of many in the IPL auctions."

While MS Dhoni didn't have a home team, Chennai opted not to pick any icon players. A couple of franchises showed interest in the former Indian cricketer, especially Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings.

However, the huge pay cheque of USD 1.65 million was allotted to Sachin Tendulkar and the signing of Dhoni was at USD 1.5 million.

Speaking further on his experience from the first season of the T20 league, Richard Madley stressed on a funny incident when a journalist asked him about sharing the room with Bollywood icon Shahrukh Khan.

He added:

"On one of the tables called Kolkata and an interesting crowd sitting on the table there and after the auction a journalist came up to me and asked how did it feel to be in the room with Shahrukh Khan. Who is Shahrukh Khan I inquired. Honestly, i didn't know. The world of Bollywood was a completely new to me. I think that's a good thing because had I suddenly thought, "Oh my goodness, me, I am in the company Indian royalty, there are Bollywood stars, there are people who are mult-billionaires," it would have got to me. But I didn't and I treated them all equal."

However, Richard Madley was stripped of auction duties post IPL 2018 and there was no formal statement from the BCCI.

"Freddie Flintoff bought me a drink" - Richard Madley on making players millionaires

Well played #indiaunder19 and runners up @England cricket 🏆. Reminds me of 2008 - the first #IPL auction when @imVkohli lifted the trophy.
Wonder which players will have one of these bails in #IPLMegaAuction in 2023? https://t.co/stLBpNAaJB

Diving deep into the difference between IPL auctions and other auctions, Richard Madley highlighted that the auctioneer gets a fixed pay IPL as opposed to commissions for taking the price higher in other auctions.

"The principal difference between conducting IPL auctions as against any of the thousands of auctions is that first of all I have no incentive to drive the prices upwards. I am not financially incentivized in the IPL auctions to take the price up. I am paid an appearance fee. But normally, an auctioneer is incentivized on commission so he is trying to drive the prices up whereas in the case of IPL the auctioneer's role is to distribute the players fairly around the teams," he continued.

Richard Madley signed off on a funny note, stressing that no cricketer has offered him any incentives to make them millionaires apart from former England all-rounder Freddie Flintoff, who bought the former a beer in South Africa a couple of years back.

"It is in nobody's interests apart from the players for the prices to go up. Listen, the players have never given me a penny. Freddie Flintoff bought me a drink. He is the only player in the history of the IPL to buy me a beer and said thank you very much. Ben Stokes offered to buy me a cup of tea at the Cheltenham Cricket Festival two years ago, that is all i have ever received from those cricketers who I have made millionaires," he concluded.