Australian cricketers will make up the greatest overseas portion in the two-day Indian Premier League (IPL) mega auction, scheduled to commence later in the day here, with the likes of Test captain Pat Cummins, left-handed opener David Warner, top-order batter Steve Smith, limited-overs specialist Mitch Marsh and pace bowler Josh Hazlewood among those in the 47-strong Aussie list, which will vie for a big lucrative-league purse.
A total of 600cricketers are up for grabs, and of those, a mind-boggling 228 are capped players, while the Australians make up the biggest overseas portion with 47 enlisted players.
Australians have traditionally done well in the IPL auctions, with the likes of white-ball specialist Glenn Maxwell, pace bowler Jhye Richardson and Riley Meredith earning in millions in 2021. While this year, only Maxwell is the only Australian to have been retained by his franchise — Royal Challengers Bangalore — several other hotshot Aussie players, following their ICC T20 World Cup title triumph in the UAE and the recent Ashes success, are likely to make big money over the weekend.
Which means Cummins, who led Australia in the Ashes after Tim Paine stepped down, and Mitch Marsh, one of the heroes of the ICC T20 World Cup in the UAE, could be hot properties, along with former Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper David Warner, who too has done exceedingly well in the T20 World Cup and the Ashes.
Marcus Stoinis, meanwhile, has already been was snapped up by new IPL franchise, Lucknow Super Giants, for a reported two million dollars.
But while several Australians will land huge deals, there will be many who will go unsold, as the trend last year showed. According to foxsports.com.au, only eight Australians were bought at the auction while 27 went unsold in 2021, with the eight being purchased for a combined total of 9.4 million dollars.
But with two new franchises added this year, it could be bumper harvest for the cricketers from Down Under. Players listed on base price:
Rs 2 crore: Pat Cummins, David Warner, Steve Smith, Mitch Marsh, Matthew Wade, Josh Hazlewood, Adam Zampa, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Ashton Agar.
Rs 1.50 crore: Aaron Finch, Chris Lynn, Usman Khawaja, Kane Richardson.
Rs 1 crore: Marnus Labuschagne, Daniel Sams, Andrew Tye, Moises Henriques, Riley Meredith, James Faulkner, D`Arcy Short, Josh Philippe.
Rs 75 lakh: Nathan Ellis, Jason Behrendorff, Sean Abbott, Billy Stanlake, Ben Cutting.
Rs 50 lakh: Ben McDermott, Kurtis Patterson, Wes Agar, Jack Wildermuth, Joel Paris, Hilton Cartwright.
Rs 40 lakh: Tim David, Chris Green.
Rs 30 lakh: Ben Dwarshuis, Matt Kelly.
Rs 20 lakh: Hayden Kerr, Tanveer Sangha, Alex Ross, Jake Weatherald, Nathan McAndrew, Tom Rogers, Liam Guthrie, Liam Hatcher, Jason Sangha, Matt Short, Aidan Cahill.