IPL auction: Mitchell Starc becomes most expensive player at Indian Premier League

Australia bowler Mitchell Starc became the most expensive signing in Indian Premier League history when he was bought for 24.75 crore Indian rupees (£2.3m) by Kolkata Knight Riders.

That fee beat the 18.15 cr (£1.85m) paid for England’s Sam Curran in 2022.

Elsewhere, England bowler Chris Woakes was sold to Punjab Kings and team-mate Harry Brook went to Delhi Capitals.

Woakes cost 4.2 cr (£400,000) and Brook 4 cr (£380,000) – a drop from the £1.35m fee paid for him last year.

After retiring from international cricket last month, all-rounder David Willey was picked up by Lucknow Super Giants for 2 cr (£189,000).

England quick Gus Atkinson was signed by Kolkata for 1 cr (£94,000) while Royal Challengers Bangalore signed Surrey and England bowler Tom Curran for 1.5 cr (£142,000) and Rajasthan Royals moved for Somerset wicketkeeper-batter Tom Kohler-Cadmore for 40 lakh (£38,000).

Opener Phil Salt and leg-spinner Adil Rashid were among a host of other English players to go unsold, alongside Australia pair Steve Smith and Josh Hazlewood.

Moeen Ali (Chennai Super Kings), Jos Buttler (Rajasthan Royals), Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone (all Punjab Kings), Jason Roy (Kolkata Knight Riders), Will Jacks, Reece Topley (both Royal Challengers Bangalore), Mark Wood (Lucknow Super Giants) were the England players already retained by their franchises.

World Cup stars earn big sums

The third biggest purchase was New Zealand all-rounder Daryl Mitchell, who was signed for 14 cr (£1.3m) by Chennai Super Kings.

The fees paid by franchises are the amount paid to each player to play for them in the tournament.

CSK also picked up Mitchell’s Black Caps team-mate Rachin Ravindra for 1.8 cr (£170,000) after his breakout performance at the 50-over World Cup this autumn.

Australia’s title win in India was expected to put their players in demand and there were gasps in the room when the bidding for captain and bowler Cummins, 30, went over 20 cr for the first time in an IPL auction as Sunrisers Hyderabad won a bidding war with RCB.

Starc, 33, has not played in the T20 competition for eight years but was signed after intense bidding, which started between Mumbai Indians and Delhi before being taken on by Gujarat Titans and KKR.

Sunrisers also picked up Australia batter Travis Head, player of the match in the World Cup final win over India, for 6.8 cr (£645,000).

Left-armer Spencer Johnson, who was not part of Australia’s squad and only made his Big Bash and international debuts this year, was bought for 10 cr (£944,000) by Gujarat Titans.

RCB spent 11.50 cr (£1.1m) on West Indies quick Alzarri Joseph and his team-mate, all-rounder Rovman Powell, was bought for 7.40 cr (£702,000) by Rajasthan.

Mumbai signed South Africa bowler Gerald Coetzee and Sri Lanka left-armer Dilshan Madushanka for 5 cr (£473,000) and 4.6 cr (£435,000) respectively.

Punjab signed India pace bowler Harshal Patel for 11.75 cr (£1.1m) and paid 8 cr (£756,00) for South Africa batter Rilee Rossouw.

Twenty-year-old Sameer Rizvi and 19-year-old Kumar Kushagra were two young, uncapped Indians to pick up large sums with Rizvi signed by CSK for 8.4 cr (£793,000) and Kushagra 7.2 cr (£680,000) by Delhi.

BBC