Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins will earn more money bowling two balls in India next year playing franchise cricket than for five days of hard work in a baggy green.
If Starc bowled the full allotment of four overs every game, he would take home $13,184 for every legal delivery that came out of his left hand.
Read Tom Decent’s full breakdown of last night’s record-breaking deals
Two more Australian fast bowlers cashed in in the late rounds of the auction, with breakout Brisbane Heat star Spencer Johnson going for $1.78 million to the Gujarat Titans and Perth Scorchers quick Jhye Richardson joining the Delhi Capitals for $892,000.
It’s a remarkable rise for Johnson in particular, with the 28-year-old having only made his T20 debut with the Heat in January this year and having just two T20 international appearances to his name.
Big-hitting Ashton Turner earned a $178,000 deal with the Lucknow Super Giants.
The full list of Australians sold on the night:
Unsold Australian players:
Steve Smith
Josh Inglis
Josh Hazlewood
Sean Abbott
Daniel Sams
Ashton Agar
Riley Meredith
Lance Morris
Billy Stanlake
Wes Agar
Ben Cutting
Ben Dwarshuis
Matt Short
Jake Fraser-McGurk
William Salzmann
The “mini” auction goes on but we’ll leave our blog there for now. Several Australians are still a chance of being picked up by IPL teams, although franchises appear increasingly unwilling to splash the cash after the big names went earlier in the night. We’ll update with the full list of Australian contract earners on Wednesday morning.
It’s been an incredible day for Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins, who both broke records with their multi-million-dollar deals, while Travis Head also joined the millionaires club with his contract.
Thanks for being with us, and stay tuned for Tom Decent’s full breakdown on the numbers behind Starc’s contract first thing Wednesday morning.
India’s Sameer Rizvi goes to the Chennai Super Kings for $1.5 million and the Rajasthan Royals get Shubham Dubey for $982,000 as a lot of IPL hopefuls go unsold. No sign of any Australians yet since the resumption.
A recap on the Australians sold in the auction so far:
And we’re back (the Strikers beat the Thunder with two balls remaining, if you’re wondering) and it’s time to begin bidding on players who haven’t represented their country.
There are a few Australians in this group – including Jake Fraser-McGurk, who bashed an incredible 29-ball hundred for South Australia a couple of months ago – but the bulk of this bidding will be on Indian players to fill the bulk of the remaining places in each franchise’s squad.
While we wait for the IPL auction to resume, here’s a bit of Matt Short going large for the Adelaide Strikers against the Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League back home. The Strikers are now 1-166 in the 17th over, chasing the Thunder’s 7-200.
Here’s a very quick recap of how the bidding for Mitchell Starc went down.
We’re in the middle of another long break before the auction resumes. We’re heading towards the uncapped players, so it’s unlikely we’ll see Starc’s record beaten tonight.
After all that spending on the pacemen the money appears to have dried up for the spinners. Waqar Salamkheil, Adil Rashid, Akeal Hosein, Ish Sodhi, Tabraiz Shamsi and Mujeeb Ur Rahman all go unsold.
We’re having another break now.
Pat Cummins’ record-breaking IPL contract didn’t last long, with Mitchell Starc toppling it to the tune of a whopping $4.43 million.
He joins the Kolkata Knight Riders as the most expensive IPL player ever. It’s an incredible return after spending eight years away from the IPL to focus on representing his country.
Then, after a lengthy bidding war, Starc’s Australian teammate Josh Hazlewood comes and goes with no bids to his name. It looks brutal but Hazlewood is expecting his first child in May so may be unavailable for the business end of the tournament.
Howzat for a contract: Mitchell Starc.Credit: Getty
The bids are coming in thick and fast for Mitchell Starc. The Aussie paceman is on his way to a big pay day, with the Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians trading bids.
And now the Kolkata Knight Riders and Gujarat Titans are getting involved. Great team names in this competition. We’re up past $2 million...
Cashing in: Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins.Credit: AP