Boult goes for $470k
It was a tough act to follow for Trent Boult, who still managed to secure a $470,000 payday at the Indian Premier League auction yesterday.
The left-armer was the fifth New Zealander sold, early on day two, and will join Black Caps teammate Colin Munro at the Ricky Ponting-coached Delhi Daredevils in April. Munro sold on day one for $406,000.
After a devastating home summer against West Indies and Pakistan, Boult was well short of the $1.07 million he sold for a year ago to Kolkata Knight Riders. He had the misfortune in the random draw to follow Indian left-armer Jaydev Unadkat who stunned everyone by becoming the secondhighest sale at a whopping 11.5 crore rupees (NZ$2.46 million).
Chennai Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming and Kings XI Punjab owner Preity Zinta, the Bollywood actress, went for it in a prolonged bidding duel for Unadkat who has one test, seven ODIs and four T20 internationals to his name.
As Fleming and Zinta raised the paddles for their respective teams and skyrocketed the price past $2 million, Rajasthan Royals arrived and got the final bid to secure Unadkat.
The only higher price of the auction to date was England allrounder Ben Stokes who fetched $2.67 million, also to the Royals.
The room at the Ritz-Carlton in Bangalore still appeared stunned when Boult’s name was drawn out next in the second fast bowlers’ group. After a very slow start to bidding, his former team Sunrisers Hyderabad looked to have secured Boult before Delhi came in.
Boult sold for the same price as Australian Nathan Coulter-Nile who was snared by the Daniel Vettori-coached Royal Challengers Bangalore. South African great Dale Steyn, the only other overseas player in that auction group, was unsold.
Former skipper Brendon McCullum remained the highestpriced New Zealander after Vettori’s RCB paid $770,000 for him on day one. Also sold were Kane Williamson ($641,000 to Sunrisers Hyderabad), Colin de Grandhomme ($470,000 to RCB) and Munro.
Again there were mixed fortunes for the New Zealanders, with allrounder Corey Anderson following Martin Guptill, Tim Southee, Mitchell McClenaghan and Ish Sodhi in not attracting a bid. All went through to the second chance auction, but require franchises to express interest in them.
Anderson hasn’t played since
undergoing surgery on a stress fracture in his spine last year, and set his reserve high at $428,000 after some solid performances for Mumbai Indians in recent years. But there was silence when he was put forward.
Tellingly, Mumbai went for
Australian allrounder Ben Cutting next up, and paid $470,000 for him.
Franchises, who each have $17 million to spend, didn’t hold back on the second day. Soon after the Unadkat splurge, 16-year-old Afghanistan spinner Mujeeb Zadran went for $855,000 to Kings XI Punjab a few days after destroying New Zealand in the
Under-19 World Cup quarterfinal in Christchurch.
Another Afghani teenager, legspinner Rashid Khan, snared
$1.92 million to Sunrisers Hyderabad in a super competitive spinners’ group which saw Sodhi miss out despite being the world’s top-ranked T20 international bowler.
Still, the order of world cricket remained largely intact as India, Australia and England cricketers dominated the high-powered bidding duels and New Zealand’s top players did reasonably well without threatening seven figures.
Pre-auction predictions were dangerous and expectations were low, the mantra repeated by various New Zealand hopefuls who’d described the auction as a lottery. Boult and Munro were two who could feel unlucky not to go for higher.
The world’s top-ranked
Twenty20 international batsman Munro, who scored one of his three centuries in India last year, could well have secured double that.
Especially when Chris Lynn, the most destructive batsman in
T20 cricket, went for a cool $2.05 million to the big-spending Kolkata Knight Riders.
Munro’s ability to consistently fire in India may have been the questionmark for some franchises, although his unbeaten 109 off 58 balls in Rajkot last November should have alleviated that.