The TATA IPL Mega Auction is set to take place on the 12th and 13th of February in Bangalore. The management of all the 10 teams will be looking to win this war before the actual battlefield is entered. Over the years there are many players for whom the teams have had literal bidding wars. MS Dhoni in the first season and Chris Morris in IPL 2021! So, over the years which are the top 5 bidding wars in the history of the TATA IPL Auction:
5. Chris Morris, RR and RCB Bidding War in 2021:
Chris Morris, the all-rounder from South Africa started a bidding war in the last auction. Morris was sold for the highest bidding price ever at 16.25 Crore Indian rupees. Many of the cricket analysts did not fancy this move of the Rajasthan Royals. The bidding war for Chris was started by Mumbai Indians who were in it till 11 Crores but further Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore took control. RCB looked adamant but eventually stopped bidding at 16.25 Crores.
4. Varun Chakravarthy, KXIP and KKR in 2019:
Varun Chakravarthy came in the 2019 IPL Auction with a very big name. He had dominated the TNPL and was in the eyes of several scouts. The bidding war took place between KXIP and Kolkata Knight Riders. He started at the base price of 50 lakhs and went for 8.4 Crore Indian rupees. Again, the Punjab Kings didn’t get the value for their money as Varun was played for only a few games.
3. Pat Cummins, DD and KKR in 2019:
Pat Cummins become another highly overrated commodity during the 2019 IPL Auction. He was bought by the KKR franchise for 15. 5 Crore Indian Rupees. The bidding war was majorly between Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders. Delhi was the place where Cummins was playing initially. Gautam Gambhir, once an integral part of the KKR leadership group, heavily criticized this move of the franchise. He went on to say, “You could have got Hazlewood for 2 Crores and he would have done a better job.”
2. Kieron Pollard, Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians Bidding War in 2010:
Kieron Pollard and the bidding war for him was so fierce that a tie-breaker had to be announced! One can never forget ow Mumbai and Chennai locked horns to get this big man from Trinidad. In 2010, Polly earned 4.8 Crores and was the biggest earner alongside Shane Bond. Mumbai and Chennai both secretly put their bid in an envelope which was then opened by the auctioneer. Mumbai came out winners and got Polly, the rest is history.
1.MS Dhoni, All team Bidding War in 2008 IPL Auction:
It never happens that all teams bid for one player. But this has certainly happened in the 2008 IPL Auction. The first-ever auction was the only auction in which MS Dhoni was on the player’s list. Since then, he was never available. Mumbai and Chennai broke the bank. They locked horns once again. Chennai earlier planned to go for Sehwag as mentioned by Bharat Chandrashekharan but later all of them agreed to go all out for MSD! He got 9.5 Crore Indian rupees in the very first auction.
