Riches for Cummins, poor day for Kiwis
Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins picked up the biggest IPL cheque ever handed out to an overseas player, but the news was much more bleak for the Kiwis at the IPL auction on Thursday night.
Only Jimmy Neesham was picked up from the 18 current and former Black Caps who put their name forward, going for his reserve price of 50 lakh rupees (NZ$106,000) to the Kings XI Punjab.
He will join five other Kiwis already signed by IPL teams: Kane Williamson (Sunrisers Hyderabad), Lockie Ferguson (Kolkata Knight
Riders), Trent Boult and Mitchell McClenaghan from the defending champions Mumbai Indians, and Mitchell Santner (Chennai Super Kings). All were retained last month, with Boult traded from Delhi Capitals to Mumbai.
It means the likes of Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Tim Southee, Colin de Grandhomme and Ish Sodhi all went unsigned, despite there being three Kiwi coaches involved in Stephen Fleming, Brendon McCullum and Mike Hesson.
Cummins’ status as the No.1ranked bowler in test cricket saw him signed by Kolkata Knight Riders for $3.29 million, eclipsing
IPL auction top buys (all New Zealand dollars):
■ sold to Kolkata Knight Riders for $3.29m
■ sold to Kings XI Punjab for $2.3m
■ sold to Royal Challengers Bangalore for $2.12m
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■ sold to Kings XI Punjab for $1.8m sold to Mumbai Indians for $1.7m sold to Delhi Capitals for $1.65m sold to Chennai Super Kings for $1.44m sold to Chennai Super Kings for $1.17m the $3 million fee Rajasthan Royals forked out for England superstar Ben Stokes in 2017.
McCullum and Hesson played big roles in Cummins’ hefty payday.
Hesson was heavily involved in a
bidding war for Cummins in his role as director of cricket operations at Royal Challengers Bangalore.
He went toe-to-toe with the Delhi Capitals to push the price to $3.14m, at which point McCullum’s Knight
Riders swooped in with their first bid, which was matched by Hesson and co, but they would not go any higher than McCullum’s final bid of $3.29m.
McCullum also secured England captain Eoin Morgan for the relative bargain of $1.1m.
Australian allrounder Glenn Maxwell attracted the second highest price of the night when Kings XI Punjab picked up the mercurial Victorian for $2.3m, despite his axing from the ODI tour of India next month.
He was followed closely by South African allrounder Chris Morris, who was sold to Hesson’s RCB for $2.12m.
Pat Cummins (Australia) Glenn Maxwell (Australia) Chris Morris (South Africa)
Sheldon Cottrell (West Indies) Nathan Coulter-Nile (Australia) Shimron Hetmyer (West Indies) Piyush Chawla (India)
Sam Curran (England)