IPL 2010 Mini Auction

Pollard and Bond

The two biggest prices of 2010 were identical. Kieron Pollard and Shane Bond each went for US$750,000, the most any franchise could spend at that auction, and more than one team reached that limit for Pollard. The tie was settled by a sealed bid outside the auction, which Mumbai Indians won. Kolkata took Bond.

Pollard was then best known for a few huge innings in the Champions League. He became one of the longest-serving overseas players in the league, and in his first season took 15 wickets as well as hitting the ball a very long way.

The players nobody bid for

Eleven Pakistan players were in the auction, several of them from the side that had won the World T20 the year before, and not one received a bid. Shahid Afridi was among them. The franchises gave no reasons in the room, and the episode caused a diplomatic row; no current Pakistan international has played in the league since 2008.

What the buys delivered

With so little bought, 2010 was decided by the squads franchises already had. Chennai Super Kings, who spent almost nothing here, won their first title. Of the expensive buys, Wayne Parnell did not play a match for Delhi that season and Kemar Roach played two for Deccan, which made Pollard and Bond look even better. The Mumbai Indians page follows how far that one tied bid carried them.

The smallest auction

In money terms 2010 is the smallest auction in the archive: under ₹17 crore across eight franchises, with no team spending more than ₹3.5 crore. Chennai and Rajasthan each spent less than ₹1 crore. Almost everything sold went on overseas players, as in 2009.

The unsold list is as notable as the sold one. Besides the Pakistan players, Graeme Swann, Brad Haddin and Doug Bollinger drew no bid, which says more about the tight squad limits and small purses of the time than about the players. Chennai, one of the two smallest spenders, won the title.