5 small town cricketers who became million-dollar babies after IPL Auction

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is not just about action on the cricket field. It also revolves around the proceedings in the auction that precedes the cash-rich T20 league. Before picking the players, the franchises jot down a few key cricketers, who are game changers.

During the auction, the teams go hammer and tongs to buy them. Meanwhile, their prices keep soaring above at the rate of knots. Some players end up even as million-dollar babies in the process and grab the headlines. These names mostly become go-to-men for their skippers, especially in crisis.

A few of them turned out to be indispensable members of their setup while some of them succumbed to the pressure of the price-tag. But there have been times when lesser-known small-town cricketers bagged in excess of a million.

In our article, let’s take a look at five small-town cricketers, who became million-dollar babies in IPL Auction

Varun Chakravarthy- Bidar, Karnataka

Before the 2019 auction, not many had much idea about the identity of Varun Chakravarthy. But as many as five teams bid for him and he fetched a whopping INR 8.40 crores (1.18 million USD) from a mere base price of INR 20 lakhs.

In the 2018 edition of the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL), the talented leg-break bowler picked up nine wickets in 10 games, representing the Madurai Panthers. But it’s his economy rate of 4.70 that was most impressive. In the IPL, he played for the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), but only for one match versus the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

There, he was taken apart by Sunil Narine after which he got rid of Nitish Rana. He ended with figures of 3-0-35-1. The 28-year-old Chakravarthy hails from Bidar, a hill-top city in the north-eastern part of Karnataka.