Kuumar Shyam (Dubai)

Good morning from the Coca Cola Arena. We are here for the auction of the Indian Premier League which has just begun. At stake is the fate of about 77 cricketers from a lot of 335, with 214 Indian players, two from Associate member nations and the rest from the coveted international field.

Representatives and owers of the 10 franchises with varied purses and requirements are here, pitting their wits and bank balance to get the best replenishments for their squads before they take the field in 2024.

11.15am

There is quite a frenzy drummed up by a few franchises. Most vocal among them have been Punjab Kings (boisterous as ever!) and Lucknow Super Giants, surprisingly. In the meantime, a quick precursor to what each teams needs is HERE.

  • Fans of all hues are a motley mix at Coca Cola Arena

12.25pm

The auction is to being held in sets. The first lot is done with.

However, before we progress it is worth noting that another mini-episode of history has just been achieved.
The IPL auction is not just being held at an overseas venue for the first time. In its 16 years of history, the player trades have never been conducted by a female auctioneer.
And the honour of the one handling the gavel is... Mallika Sagar. She has done it before as the auctioneer for the Pro-Kabaddi League, and the inaugural Women's Premiere League (WPL).

12.37pm

ANOTHER RECORD!!

And the lady with the biggest purse in the hall takes Pat Cummins. The 50-over World Cup winning Australia captain and all-rounder goes to Kavya Maran's Sunrisers Hyderabad. They had a purse of $4.09 million to spend for six players.

They spend 0.82 million on Travis Head; But Cummins is nearly gone for $2.47 million alone. It's a tight rope walk for Hyderabad but Cummins is surely not complaining. He has broken the previous best of $2.27million.

12.55pm

The bubbly actress Preity Zinta is delighted. Reason? She has taken and won her first active purchase in India all-rounder Harshal Patel.

1.10pm

The SECOND-HIGHEST so far is another all-rounder, which shouldn't be a surprise. While compatriot Rachin Ravindra went for a paltry $220,000 odd, New Zealand's Daryl Mitchell slots in between the Australian all-rounders Travis Head and Pat Cummins.

And there is a short 10-minute break.

2.10pm

Pat Cummins has been put to shade by his compatriot. When his name was announced, there went a collective gasp of excitement, the first one. Once that tone was set, there was no denying Mitchell Starc will become hot property in minutes. After an initial slanging match between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals, just when it looked like petering into the favour of Mumbai's Ambanis at 14 crore ($1.67m), Kolkata Knight Riders and Gujarat Titans stepped into the fray.

Even Akash Ambani afforded to have a joke cracked, realising where the real game was warming up. The prices went up every few seconds with both lead bidders going fairly determined for a while until it crossed the 24 crore mark.
After much deliberations, Shahrukh Khan's Kolkata Knight Riders with Gautam Gambhir's inputs seal their first splash for $2.98mn.
NEW RECORD!! Mitchell Starc is the most expensive buy now.


2.25pm

After the fast bowlers in the last set, coming up are the spinners.

Player of the tournament at Abu Dhabi T10, Akeal Hosein of West Indies has gone unsold. That's a bit harsh.

With many franchises now having to dig deep into their purses, and spinners considered a tough class in the punishing T20 format, the buzz at the Coca Cola Arena is bottled.

3.35pm

Sorry for the lull. They announced a break for half an hour, but has taken longer. Meanwhile, five sets of uncapped players are to be done with. As indicated, purses have dwindled, but Delhi Capitals and Gujarat Titans have decent amounts left. It also means a couple of uncapped players could get extra attention. If watching out for the "next big thing" is someone's mojo, this is their section. And we are off.

Players are being run through. After this will be an accelerated auction when teams will put up an initial wishlist and only those with any interest will come up under the hammer.
Meanwhile, enjoy this message from Daryl Mitchell.

An error occurred while retrieving the Tweet. It might have been deleted.


4pm

Sameer Rizvi, the attacking Uttar Pradesh, is the pick of uncapped players so far. Chennai Super Kings take him for Rs 8.4 crore.

6.10pm

Spencer Johnson joins the merry list for Australian all-rounders. Even as an uncapped player, with Gujarat Titans missing out in the Starc bidding war, they go all the way up to the round Indian currency figure of 10 crore, which translates to $1.20 million.
That makes it on No. 6 spot of the top richest buys at the mini-auction. He bumps off Sameer Rizvi of Uttar Pradesh, the north Indian state.

TOP 7 BUYS
Mitchell Starc | Kolkata Knight Riders | Bowler | $2.98 million
Pat Cummins | Sunrisers Hyderabad | All-Rounder | $2.47 million
Daryl Mitchell | Chennai Super Kings | All-Rounder | $1.67m
Harshal Patel | Punjab Kings | All-Rounder | $1.42m
Alzarri Joseph | Royal Challengers Bangalore | Bowler | $1.38m
Spencer Johnson | Gujarat Titans | All-rounder | $1.20m


7.30pm
And it has been a reprieve for some, especially Rilee Russouw, who went unsold in the first lost. But the accelerated auction, where teams pick a shortlist of 1-2 players each as reconsideration and the lot goes up for a rebidding process, saw the South African come back with a bonus price tag of 5 crore ($1.1 million).


7.59pm
With that, the final hammer has gone down by Sagar and it is curtains from the historic IPL auction in the UAE.
Over press conferences, the franchise owners have said not to read too much into the context of the event coming out of India for the first time in 16 years.
As Aletihad indicated, the Indian elections are due to clash with the normal window for IPL in 2024, but the franchises are not yet aware of any plans for relocation. Sanjeev Goenka, the owner of Lucknow Super Giants, and Kumar Sangakkara of Rajasthan Royals said as much.
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