On 19th of December 2023, the cricketing world witnessed the moment of history being made during the grand mini IPL 2024 auction held at the Coca Cola Arena in Dubai. Like records being shattered by batters on the cricket field by scoring runs or by bowlers taking wickets, here at the arena 10 franchises locked horns with their respective available purses and strategies only to create new records in the cricketing league history. IPL 2024 promises to be a thriller if we go through to the auction.
With over 333 players capped and uncapped going under the hammer, the flavor of the season was clearly the Australians who had the major impact over all the world in the year 2023 winning two most coveted trophies The ICC World Test Championship and The ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.It was clearly evident that the likes of star players like Travis Head, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins who in the view of the upcoming T20I World cup making themselves available for the auction will go hammers and tongs and acquire huge prices.
Hardly anyone in the cricketing world could speculate that one of the world’s richest league IPL would grab the eyeballs of the whole world within the few hours of the auction and will witness a new record set by Pat Cummins to get 20.50 crores from Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) to be broken within next few minutes of the hammer by his fellow Australian teammate Mitchell Starc who secured a whopping historic price of 24.75 crores from Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
Such was the domino effect of the auction war that even Kolkata Knight Riders CEO Venky Mysore was left amused and couldn’t control his emotions while speaking on the sidelines of the auction in the arena regarding acquisition of Mitchell Starc at such a historic price and the logic behind IPL becoming such a Mega league since its inception in 2008.
Kolkata Knight Rider’s bidding process to acquire Mitchell Starc
Less than an hour after Australia’s ODI World Cup-winning captain Pat Cummins shattered all records at the IPL 2024 auction in Dubai on Tuesday, with Sunrisers Hyderabad acquiring him for a record offer of INR 20.50 crore, fellow Aussie and multiple World Cup winner himself, Mitchell Starc fetched an all -time high bid of whopping INR 24.75 crore from Kolkata Knight Riders.
This was the second time that the two-time IPL winners signed the left-arm pacer, having roped him back in 2018 for INR 9.4 crore before Starc missed the season with a right-leg injury.
Going into the process of bidding, KKR weren’t however part of what was at least one of the longest bidding processes in IPL history right from the start. It was Delhi Capitals who showed interest with Rishabh Pant raising the paddle at the base price of INR 2 crore before they tapped out with Mumbai Indians standing tall with their 8 crore offer.
It was then when KKR entered and outlasted MI only to find a fresh challenge from Gujarat Titans. The battle lasted for at least 10 minutes before Gujarat, at the end of a long discussion between Ashish Nehra and the team analyst, backed out as KKR signed back Starc for INR 24.75 crore breaking an all time IPL bidding record.
Speaking on the sidelines of the event at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai, KKR CEO Venky Mysore recalled that in the inaugural season of IPL way back in 2008, all teams had a salary cap of 20 crore before bursting into a laughter. Even former Indian batting legend now commentator Sunil Gavaskar has raised questions on giving exuberant price to the Australian pacer or any other player for that matter.
I don’t think anybody is worth that kind of money- Sunil Gavaskar’s harsh take on KKR & Mitchell Starc
Former Indian batting legend now commentator Sunil Gavaskar feels the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) went over the top while buying Mitchell Starc for an exorbitant sum at the IPL 2024 auction. The Kolkata-based franchise spent a whopping ₹24.75 crore to acquire the Australian seamer. They spent a total of ₹31.35 crore to purchase 10 players at the auction in December last year.
During a discussion on Star Sports, Gavaskar was asked about his thoughts on the Kolkata Knight Riders spending a fortune to buy Mitchell Starc. He responded:
“Over the top, to be absolutely frank. I don’t think anybody is worth that kind of money. If Starc can make an impact and win maybe four out of the 14 matches that he plays, then you can say money’s worth. Then if he makes contributions in the other games – absolutely fantastic,”
The former India captain added that KKR will get their money’s worth only if the left-arm seamer bowls match-winning spells in at least four games, preferably against some of the top batting sides.
“He has got to bowl match-winning spells in at least four out of the 14 matches, and maybe the crucial matches against the Mumbai Indians, the Chennai Super Kings and RCB, because these three have top-class batting lineups. Bowl those teams out and you could even then say – money’s worth,” Gavaskar stated.
Mitchell Starc picked up 34 wickets at an economy rate of 7.17 in the 27 games he played for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the 2014 and 2015 editions of the Indian Premier League. He hasn’t played in the last eight seasons of the prestigious tournament and will hope to make an impact on his return. Mitchell Starc had picked 16 wickets for Australia in their 2023 World Cup win in Indian conditions as a result of which the franchise picked him up for such a heavy price.
Certainly now it is confirmed that the auction of IPL 2024 has certainly raised the bar for the upcoming IPL season come March 2024 and it would be interesting to see how these highly priced marquee players perform during the course of the season .