Sam Curran costliest player ever; Cameron Green, Ben Stokes and Harry Brooks earn big paychecks
The 24-year-old England all-rounder Sam Curran, who was named the Man of the Match in the final and the Player of the Tournament in the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 tournament in Australia, created history on Friday when he became the costliest player ever in the history of the cash rich Indian Premier League (IPL).
Punjab Kings, a team which has never won the IPL trophy in history spent a mind-boggling INR 18.50 crore or USD 2.25 million approximately to get Sam Curran on their roster. At this price, the 24-year-old English all-rounder is even costlier than the retained players such as Virat Kohli and KL Rahul. It was in 2019 that Punjab Kings (PBKS) bought the English cricketer for INR 7.2 crores for his first IPL stint.
Sam Curran told Star Sports,
“Absolutely overwhelmed and incredibly humbled to receive that bid. Punjab is where I did my debut season a few years ago … It will be very different but I know the stadium at Mohali pretty well, and surely our team-mates will help me … Incredibly excited to come to India for this big opportunity. So many things running through my mind. At 9am this morning I was struggling to find a stream, it [the auction] wasn’t on TV in England. I sat with my girlfriend and her dad to watch it. I actually turned my phone off because I thought I was behind and didn’t want to see any messages saying congrats. I saw the bids coming from Mumbai, then Chennai, having played for Chennai earlier it was cool to see them [bidding].”
Chennai Super Kings (CSK), statistically the second-most successful IPL team acquired England’s Ben Stokes for INR 16.25 crores while Cameron Green became the costliest Australian player ever in the IPL, being bought for INR 17.5 crores by Mumbai Indians (MI).
Among Sam Curran’s teammates, England’s World Cup star Adil Rashid was bought for INR 2 crores by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), Reece Topley was snapped up by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for INR 1.9 crores, Phil Salt was taken up by Delhi Capitals for his base price of INR 2 crores while Will Jacks went to RCB for INR 3.2 crores.
England’s aggressive batsman Harry Brook, who had a successful tour of Pakistan recently, was sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad for INR 13.25 crores while the former SRH captain Kane Williamson went to Gujarat Titans (GT), the winner of the previous IPL at his base price of INR 2 crores.
Ireland bowler Josh Little, who took a hat-trick in the World Cup in Australia, was taken up by Gujarat Titans for INR 4.4 crore, David Wiese went to Kolkata Knight Riders for INR 1 crore, South Africa’s aggressive batsman Rilee Rossouw went to Delhi Capitals for INR 4.6 crore, Australia legspinner Adam Zampa and former West Indies captain Jason Holder went to Rajasthan Royals for INR 1.5 crore and INR 5.75 crore respectively.
Punjab Kings also acquired the services of Sikandar Raza, the star Zimbabwe player who made news in the T20 World Cup for his dominant performances against the West Indies and Pakistan in the group stage.
Indian batsman Ajinkya Rahane was picked up by Chennai Super Kings for his base price of INR 50 lakhs while Mayank Agarwal was sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad for a big prize money of INR 8.25 crore.
Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan was back at Kolkata Knight Riders for INR1.5 crore while for the first time ever, former England captain Joe Root was picked up by a team in the IPL auction, with Rajasthan Royals spending INR 1 crore on the right-handed batsman.
While former India seamer Mohit Sharma, who was last seen in the ICC World Cup 2015, was sold to Gujarat Titans for INR 50 lakhs, and the 40-year-old Amit Mishra also found a buyer in Lucknow Super Giant (LSG), who took him for his base price of INR 50 lakhs.
India legspinner Piyush Chawla was taken up by Mumbai Indians for INR 50 lakhs in a desperate attempt to revive their bowling which looked horribly depleted last year with Murugan Ashwin, who will now play for Rajasthan Royals, shouldering all the responsibility.
The five-time IPL winners Mumbai Indians will be a much better side as far is their overall fire power is concerned given that their star fast bowling pair of Jasprit Bumrah and Jofra Archer is expected to be fit in time for the tournament in mid next year, and they have bolstered their squad with the inclusion of the multitalented Australian all-rounder Cameron Green.
List of unsold names has surprises
The IPL auctions are always surprising with plenty of players making it big while several others not finding a buyer.
The list of players who were unsold this year includes some former IPL players such as New Zealand’s Jimmy Neesham, India’s Varun Aaron, Jagadeesha Suchith, South Africa’s Wayne Parnell, Zimbabwe’s Blessing Muzarabani, Bangladesh’s Taskin Ahmed, Sunrisers Hyderabad’s trusted soldier in Sandeep Sharma, Australia’s Riley Meredith, Sri Lanka’s Dasun Shanaka, New Zealand’s Jimmy Neesham, former Sunrisers Hyderabad player Mohammad Nabi, ace New Zealand all-rounder Daryl Mitchell, England’s Dawid Malan, Australia’s Travis Head, South Africa’s Rassie van der Dussen, Afghanistan’s Mujeeb ur Rahman, South Africa’s Tabraiz Shamsi, Sri Lanka’s Kusal Mendis, New Zealand’s Adam Milne and many more.