IPL 2008 Mega Auction

A league in an afternoon

The IPL did not exist as a set of teams until the auction created them. Each of the eight franchises arrived with a purse of US$5 million, a list of international and Indian players it could bid for, and very little idea of what anyone was worth, because nobody had paid for a T20 cricketer this way before.

Five players were not in the room. The icon players, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag, were assigned to their home franchises in advance and paid 15% more than their side's most expensive buy. The Under-19 World Cup winners, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja among them, were shared out in a separate draft. Both groups are listed on this page, but none of the auction totals include them.

The price of a captain

Chennai Super Kings paid the day's highest price, US$1.5 million, for MS Dhoni, then India's new T20 captain. It set a pattern that has held for most of the league's history: franchises pay most for a player who can lead as well as play. Dhoni scored 414 runs that season and captained Chennai to the final.

The next two buys went the other way. Andrew Symonds cost Deccan Chargers US$1.35 million and Brett Lee cost Kings XI Punjab US$900,000, and Australia's tour of the West Indies limited both to four matches. Availability, not ability, was the risk the first auction priced worst.

The overseas bet

With no domestic T20 market to judge from, franchises bought reputations they already knew. Overseas players made up most of the players sold and well over half of the money spent. Some of those bets paid at once: Sanath Jayasuriya, the third most expensive buy, scored 514 runs for Mumbai at a strike rate above 160. Others never started; Chris Gayle, bought by Kolkata, did not play a match for them that season.

The cheapest side won

Rajasthan Royals spent less at this auction than any other franchise and won the first title. Their buying was aimed at roles rather than names: Shane Warne as captain and coach, Shane Watson for US$125,000, Yusuf Pathan, and the left-arm seamer Sohail Tanvir, who took 22 wickets. Watson was named player of the tournament. Rajasthan's win became the league's founding argument that an auction rewards a plan more than a budget, and every later auction on this site can be read against it.

Run the same auction yourself in IPL Dynasty, starting in 2008, or see how the auction rules work in the auction guide.