When the Indian Premier League auction takes place each year, the interest of cricket crazy Indians tends to heighten. Cricket fans follow each bid on each player avidly. The IPL 2018 auction was concluded recently; everyone was both excited and interested. Some players were unexpectedly expensive; some bidders seemed almost OCD in their acquisitiveness!
For the rest of the year, it’s all about the honour of representing one's own country on the field. Then all alliances change, teammates become foes and players commit to playing for their ‘owner’ vis-à-vis playing for ‘honour’.
Jaydev Unadkat was the prize some were keen to acquire. He was the most expensive Indian player at the 2018 auction. He was sold to the Rajasthan Royals for Rs 11.5 crores.
Pakistan players continue to remain out of the IPL, for political and sport-related reasons. With the public sentiment being largely anti-Pak, franchise owners don’t want to risk it. The match-fixing scandals that continue to haunt Pak cricketers are another deterrent. Plus the current Pak team doesn’t have the kind of talent that would make IPL team owners opt for any to fill their quota of 4 foreign players per team; with so much other talent on offer.
Unadkat being the most expensive Indian player this year, this thought did perhaps cross the minds of several other talented players.
Ben Stokes was the most expensive player in the 2018 auction. He was acquired by Rajasthan Royals for Rs 12.5 crores. The other most expensive players were batsmen K L Rahul (Kings XI Punjab) and Manish Pandey and Chris Lynn of Australia.
Lasith Malinga, Hashim Amla, Joe Root, Martin Guptill, Dale Steyn, Eoin Morgan, Morne Morkel, Corey Anderson and Shaun Marsh remained unsold to the surprise of many.
Apart from Jaydev Unadkat, many others got huge raises: Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Nitish Rana and Siddharth Kaul went for much more this year as compared to the previous years.
The owner of the most glamorous IPL franchise and one of India’s most reviled men, Vijay Mallya had to find mention among the proceedings, of course!
The team owner of KXIP: she was in the mood to ‘shop’ thought veteran player Virender Sehwag; because according to him “Ladkiyon ko shopping ka shock (sic.) hota hai.”
Arguably one of the most entertaining cricketers in the world (for some good, some not so good reasons), Chris Gayle went for the base price of Rs 2 crores.
Australia was the country from which the most number of players were bought; followed by South Africa, the West Indies and England. There were also four players from Afghanistan and one from Nepal.
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