Who was the first player to be sold at IPL auction in 2008? Unknown facts of first IPL auction on 16th anniversary

February 20 marks 16 years since the first-ever IPL auction held way back in 2008 in Mumbai. The bidding event for the inaugural edition of the tournament set the foundation for the grand success of the T20 extravaganza in the years to come as it’s now entering its 17^th season. Notably, the inaugural auction of the IPL made headlines in the entire cricketing fraternity as several big stars were sold for big bucks in the debut season.

Former India captain MS Dhoni was the most expensive player of the first auction as he was sold for a whopping USD 1.5 Million to Chennai Super Kings (CSK). However, Dhoni wasn’t the first player to be sold in the history of the IPL. The first cricketer to go under the hammer in the history of the league was the legendary Australia wrist spinner, Shane Warne.

Also Check: Team-wise best and worst buys of all time in IPL auction history

Warne was bought by Rajasthan Royals (RR) for USD 450,000 and the legendary cricketer etched his name with golden words in IPL history leading RR to a triumph in the inaugural season beating CSK in the final. The first IPL auction was held in eight rounds with several big names of the cricketing world going under the hammer including Pakistan stars such as Shoaib Akhtar, Sohail Tanvir, Shahid Afridi, and Kamran Akmal among others.

The salary cap for the auction was set at USD 5 million for each team and they had to spend a minimum of USD 3.3 million. Rajasthan Royals were fined by BCCI for not meeting the minimum spending threshold. A total of 77 players had signed for the inaugural auction out of which 48 were foreign players.

VVS Laxman gave up his Icon Player Tag for the team's benefit

Ahead of the bidding event, all eight teams signed a marquee Indian player as ‘Icon Player’ who was a local boy of the city they were representing. The Icon Player didn't feature in the bidding process and would get 15% more salary than the most expensive player of that particular team. Mumbai Indians chose Sachin Tendulkar, Delhi Daredevils (DD) acquired Virender Sehwag, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) went for their prince Sourav Ganguly, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) signed Rahul Dravid and Kings XI Punjab (Now Punjab Kings) sealed a deal with Yuvraj Singh as Icon Players.

Also Read: Who are the 5 most expensive uncapped players in IPL auction history?

Notably, the Hyderabad-born cricketer VVS Laxman gave up his ‘Icon Player’ status for Deccan Chargers (DC) to allow his side to have more money to bid for players. Both Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) didn’t have a single Icon Player which helped CSK shell out USD 1.5 Million and onboard Dhoni.

Glenn McGrath goes unsold, MI emerges as most expensive team

After Dhoni, legendary Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds became the second most expensive player at the auction getting sold for USD 1.35 million to DC. Legendary South Africa all-rounder Jacques Kallis was one of the most sought-after foreign players as he was sold for USD 900,000 by Royal Challengers Bangalore. At the end of the auction, Mumbai Indians turned out to be the most expensive team costing over USD 111.9 million.

A second Auction was held for unsold foreign players after 20 days

Also Check: Who were the most expensive players in the past IPL auctions?

While many foreign stars managed to attract high bids, Australia seamer Glenn McGrath, who was the then-highest wicket taker among seamers in international cricket (949 wickets), surprisingly went unsold. All the unsold players were given their Base Price by the BCCI. After the first auction, a second auction was also held for foreign players on March 11, 2008 for which 26 players including the ones who were left unsold in the first auction signed up.

The Under 19 Draft that helped RCB get Virat Kohli

Meanwhile, apart from international stars, the franchises also had the option of picking two Under-19 players and a salary cap was set for them. It was through this process only that RCB managed to get hold of the then Indian U-19 captain Virat Kohli who later went on to become one of the biggest superstars of the league.

According to Kohli, his home franchise, Delhi Daredevils was also interested in buying the talented youngster. However, they went for left-arm seamer Pradeep Sangwan to reinforce their bowling. Players with no Ranji experience were given a salary cap of USD 30,000 while those with Ranji experience were kept at USD 50,000.

Apart from that, franchises also had to sign a minimum of four Under 22 players from their designated catchment area in their squad. Under this, Delhi signed Shikhar Dhawan, RCB signed Vinay Kumar, CSK acquired Ravichandran Ashwin, Mumbai got Ajinkya Rahane, Deccan Chargers bought Pragyan Ojha, Rajasthan signed Swapnil Asnodkar among others.