IPL auction 2021: Every Aussie bought and those who were shunned

The IPL auction was a mixed bag for Australia’s cricketers. Steve Smith copped a massive haircut while others secured life-changing deals.

That’ll hurt for Steve.

Australians have had a mixed night at the IPL auction with Steve Smith copping a major pay cut while Jhye Richardson, Riley Meredith and Glenn Maxwell welcomed multimillion-dollar contracts.

Smith was the first player sold in the 2021 IPL Auction and the bidding never took off, but it was a different story for Maxwell, who sold for $2.5m (AUD), while surprise packet Jhye Richardson went for $2.48m and Riley Meredith went for $1.4m in the auction.

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Richardson set tongues wagging when he bowled Sixers star Josh Phillippe with a sidestep at the crease in a brilliant tactic in this year’s Big Bash League.

He finished the tournament as its leading wicket-taker with 29 wickets at an average of 16.31 and an economy of 7.69, numbers that prompted a bidding war.

It’s a life-changing result for the Aussie who hasn’t played in the IPL before.

It was believed that Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore would go after Richardson but Kings XI Punjab snuck in to snatch the Aussie star.

But Meredith was arguably a bigger shock as he started at just 40 lakh ($A71k).

The bidding rose quickly with Kings XI Punjab eventually winning the war for the favourite

of Shane Warne who has an ability to bowl at 150km/h.

He took just 16 wickets in the BBL competition this season but was economical at 7.82 runs per over.

Riley Meredith and Jhye Richardson are now millionaires.

The other shock was the bargain price that Smith went for to Ricky Ponting’s Delhi Capitals.

After the first three players remained unsold, Smith was thrust into the action early with the Capitals getting the Aussie star in an absolute steal.

Smith is one of the world’s best batsman and was on a kingly deal with the Rajasthan Royals.

He was the skipper of the side but after finishing in last with six wins and eight losses, Smith was cut from the side.

In Australian dollars, Smith went from being retained at $2.5 million last season to $389,290 with the Capitals.

Smith did score 311 runs but at an average of 25.91 and it was easily his worst performance in the tournament as he tallied just three 50s in the competition.

Ouch Steve.

It could have been worse however with Aussie skipper Aaron Finch’s horror form catching up with him as he was passed in at the auction.

He scored 268 runs at 22.33 and was dropped during the season for Aussie young gun Josh Phillippe.

But it got much worse when he returned to the BBL as he scored just 179 runs in 13 innings at an average of 13.77.

While it was looking bleak for the Aussies, Glenn Maxwell’s price went up from $2.2m last season with the Kings XI Punjab, to going to Royal Challengers Bangalore for more than $A2.5m (14.25 crore).

It came after Maxwell scored just 108 runs at 15.4 in 13 matches last season.

But he remains one of the biggest hitters in world cricket.

Maxwell was eager to join the team and the likes of AB de Villiers and Indian skipper Virat Kohli.

“I get along with Virat pretty well. It’ll be certainly nice to work under Virat and will certainly enjoy batting with him – that’s for sure,” Maxwell said.

“It will be awesome to work with him, and he’s always been really helpful to me along the journey. Whenever I’ve caught up with him, he’s been brilliant. So to be able to work with him first hand will be pretty cool.”

Maxwell will take that.

South Africa all-rounder Chris Morris became the most expensive player bought for the Indian Premier League when Rajasthan Royals paid $2.87 million as part of a spending spree by the world’s richest Twenty20 tournament.

Also, this is a good way to explain why South African cricket is in trouble. In this IPL auction, Chris Morris has sold for the same amount of money CSA would have made if the Australia Test series had gone ahead in March.

— Firdose Moonda (@FirdoseM) February 18, 2021

A host of stars from top cricket nations picked up million dollar-plus contracts for the 10-week tournament that is expected to start in April.

“Serious money” was laid out, said England wicketkeeper batsman Jonny Bairstow. The fee for the 33-year-old Morris smashed the record $2.84 million paid for Yuvraj Singh by Delhi in 2015.

Australian bowler Pat Cummins had previously been the most expensive foreign player, costing Kolkata Knight Riders $2.8m in 2019.

“The most expensive player in IPL history is now a Royal,” Rajasthan said as it trumpeted bringing in Morris, who will join a team including England stars Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes.

“It was quite a high price, but at the same time, the role in the team and the demand for the role plays a large part,” Royals’ director of cricket Kumar Sangakkara said.

Morris is a fast bowler and hard-hitting lower order batsman. He played for Rajasthan in 2015 and since then had been with Delhi and Bangalore taking 80 wickets in 70 IPL matches.

South Africa's Chris Morris (centre). (Photo by Lindsey PARNABY / AFP)

New Zealand all-rounder Kyle Jamieson went to Royal Challengers Bangalore for $2.58 million, 14 times his start price at the auction.

Three-time IPL champions Chennai Super Kings, led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, got England spin bowler Moeen Ali for over $1.22 million — more than three times the fee paid when he was last at auction in 2018.

Off-spinner Krishnappa Gowtham was the costliest Indian after he went to Chennai for $1.61m. Arjun Tendulkar, son of Indian cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar, was picked by Mumbai Indians, in the last transaction of the day.

AUSSIES SOLD AT AUCTION

Steve Smith — Delhi Capitals — $390,000

Glenn Maxwell — Royal Challengers Bangalore — $2.5 million

Jhye Richardson — Kings XI Punjab — $2.48 million

Nathan Coulter-Nile — Mumbai Indians — $885,000

Riley Meredith — Kings XI Punjab — $1.4 million

Dan Christian — Royal Challengers Bangalore — $850,000

Moises Henriques — Kings XI Punjab — $744,000

Ben Cutting — Kolkata Knight Riders — $133,000

UNSOLD AUSSIES

Aaron Finch, Alex Carey, Shaun Marsh, Ben Cutting, Marnus Labuschagne, Billy Stanlake, Jason Behrendorff, Ben Dwarshuis, Ben McDermott, Matthew Wade, Sean Abbott, Josh Inglis, Chris Green, Jack Wildermuth

AUSSIES ALREADY IN IPL

Josh Hazlewood — Chennai Super Kings

Marcus Stoinis — Delhi Capitals

Daniel Sams — Delhi Capitals (traded to RCB)

Pat Cummins — Kolkata Knight Riders

Chris Lynn — Mumbai Indians

Andrew Tye — Rajasthan Royals

Josh Philippe — Royal Challengers Bangalore

Adam Zampa — Royal Challengers Bangalore

Kane Richardson — Royal Challengers Bangalore

David Warner — Sunrisers Hyderabad

Mitch Marsh — Sunrisers Hyderabad