Indian Premier League (IPL) is the most extravagant event in cricket. The season starts with an auction, where all the eight teams bid to secure the player that suit their franchise the most. The auction is conducted annually and is usually a two-day event. Some cricketers even get multi-million dollar contracts. Here is a list of the top ten of them:
1. Chris Morris
All records were broken when Rajasthan Royals bought Chris for 16.25 crores in the IPL 2021 auction. The bidding war was raging, but Rajasthan came outshining as winners to get the all-rounder Chris Morris and made him the most expensive buy in history.
2. Yuvraj Singh
Singh is India’s flamboyant left-handed all- rounder-player. He was purchased for 16 crores by Delhi Daredevils before the IPL season of 2015. Yuvraj just scored 248 runs in 14 matches, at an average of 19, and therefore, he was released by the team before the next season.
3. Pat Cummins
The Australian fast bowler Pat was bought for 15.5 crores by Kolkata Knight Riders, in the year 2020. The team is owned by Shahrukh Khan, Juhi Chawla, and her spouse. The franchise joined the bidding a bit late but still managed to grab Cummins. This created a new record for an overseas player as the most expensive buy. The record was earlier held by England’s all-rounder Ben Stokes in 2017.
4. Kyle Jamieson
Royal Challengers Bangalore kept their faith in Kyle and purchased him for 15 crores. The fast bowler from New Zealand came out shining like a winner by performing in the domestic T-20 season.
5. Ben Stokes
Stokes was the highest-paid overseas player in the IPL auction till last year, before Cummins. The New Zealand- born English all-rounder player was bought for 14.5 crores by The Rising Pune Supergiant in 2017.
6. Glenn Maxwell
Royal Challengers were in a mood to spend while bidding for Maxwell. Though 2020 was not a great year for the player, he still managed to be auctioned for 14.25 crores. Glenn played brilliantly, which led the franchise to bid for him in the auction.
7. Dinesh Karthik
Delhi Devils once again spent a fortune, but this time for Karthik, who had played for six franchises already in 2014. Dinesh was bought for 12.5 crores, as an experienced batsman. The Tamil Nadu wicket-keeper also played for the franchise in the earlier three seasons.
8. Jaydev Unadkat
Rajasthan Royals spent 11.5 crores on Jaydev, after he took a hat-trick for the Supergiants in 2017, and became royalty in the 2018 auction. Jaydev is a left-arm pacer from Saurashtra who a few years ago, joined the Indian Cricket Team.
9. Gautam Gambhir
Gambhir was the captain of the team Delhi; after which, he was purchased by Kolkata Knight Riders for an insane amount of 11.4 crores. He was later made the captain of the franchise, and led the team for the next seven years, and captained them to win two titles in the years 2012 and 2014.
10. KL Rahul
He is the current skipper for Punjab Kings and has been bought by the franchise for 11 crores in the auction. Rahul performed amazingly well with the franchise scoring 654 runs in 14 games, and took the league by storm. After letting Ravichandran Ashwin go in the 2019 season, Kl Rahul was declared as the skipper of the side.
