England’s millionaires hit for six
BEN STOKES and Tymal Mills admitted they are still in shock after the life-changing moment they were made T20 millionaires.
England’s Stokes and Mills were the two highest lots at yesterday’s 10th Indian Premier League auction, going for £1.7million and £1.4m respectively.
While Stokes had been expected to attract significant interest, the battle for lightning-fast pace bowler Mills left many astonished – including the player himself.
Mills has been forced to limit himself to the shortest format because of a degenerative back condition. And he said yesterday he would have been delighted just to get one bid, let alone a seven-figure one, after putting himself on the lowest reserve price of £60,000.
“I can’t believe it. I can’t put into words what has happened,” said Mills after Royal Challengers Bangalore picked up the tab.
“I did not see this coming and it took a while for it to sink in. It has been a crazy day.
“I was up at 8.30am this morning and put the auction on TV. I had missed some of the batters get sold but saw Stokesy go for big money – that was awesome.
“I was the lowest of the base prices because I just wanted to get picked up by a team. I didn’t want to wait until July for my next cricket in the NatWest T20 Blast. So when my name came up I was nervous, giddy and jumpy.
“I was on FaceTime with my best mate and he just kept shouting. The bidding was quite slow but once it hit 10 Crore [10 million rupees] I knew it was big money, but it kept going.
“It’s an amount of money that can change your life. It will for me.”
Stokes, 25, became the highest-paid overseas cricketer in IPL history after Rising Pune Supergiants held sway in a frenetic battle.
The all-rounder labelled his pay package a “life-changing amount”.
“Seven times my reserve amount – that’s mental and it hasn’t sunk in yet,” he said.
“I wasn’t sure how much a Crore was [approx £120,000], people were retweeting stuff – it was complete carnage. Hopefully I’ll live up to it, win a few games and deliver on what they’ve paid for me.” Fellow all-rounder Chris Woakes will join them in the competition which runs from April 5 to May 21 after he was another big winner, being snapped up by Kolkata Knight Riders for £500,000.
Eoin Morgan (£240,000 to King’s XI Punjab), Jason Roy (£120,000 to Gujarat Lions) and Chris Jordan (£60,000) to Sunrisers Hyderabad were also picked up.
They will join Jos Buttler and Sam Billings, who were retained by Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils respectively, but there was only disappointment for Alex Hales and Jonny Bairstow who did not receive bids.