IPL 2014 Mega Auction

Rupees and a record

The 2014 auction was the first conducted in Indian rupees, with a larger purse and a fresh reset of every squad. Royal Challengers Bangalore paid ₹14 crore for Yuvraj Singh, the highest price the league had seen, and Delhi paid ₹12.5 crore for Dinesh Karthik. Both scored steadily rather than spectacularly, and both were in the auction again a year later.

Delhi's clean slate

Delhi Daredevils kept nobody and spent their entire purse, buying more players than any other side. The rebuild did not work: Delhi finished bottom. A full reset gives a franchise freedom, but it also throws away the continuity that most title-winning squads in this archive are built on.

The value was lower down

The season's outstanding buys were not the most expensive. Glenn Maxwell cost Kings XI Punjab ₹6 crore and scored 552 runs as Punjab reached their first final; David Warner cost Sunrisers ₹5.5 crore and made 528. Kolkata Knight Riders, who spent in the middle of the pack, won their second title. Karn Sharma, the most expensive uncapped player, is a reminder that the auction also priced potential, and that potential was expensive.

Compare with the 2011 reset and the 2018 mega auction.

Reading the numbers

As in 2011, a full reset pulled the overseas share of spending below half, and the franchises that kept the fewest players spent the most: Delhi, Punjab and Hyderabad. Chennai and Rajasthan, who had kept five players each, spent the least.

The title went to Kolkata, fourth on spend, who beat Punjab, the second biggest spenders, in the final. Neither had spent the most; Delhi, who had, finished last. Alex Hales, Brett Lee and Cameron White were among the capped players left unsold, and several later returned to the league as replacements. Lee, the most expensive overseas bowler of the first auction six years earlier, was not bought at all.