IPL auctioneer reveals the most surprising moment in 2018 auction

The eleventh edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is fast approaching towards its business end as the teams are looking to secure their berth in the playoffs. The franchises have revamped the look of their sides this year in the mega-auction which held in January. They were allowed to retain a few players from their previous squad before going into the auction. The two-day event saw a lot of cricketers going under the hammer and a few picks raised many eyebrows even as the IPL auctioneer Richard Madley has now revealed his most surprising moment in the auction.

The franchises were aware of the performances of the local players who did well in the domestic T20 tournament and shelled out a lot of money for them. Even the U19 stars were the attraction during the auction which also saw a lot of star players going unsold.

Madley reveals the surprising moment

Richard Madley was recently invited to the cricket show by Sky Sports where he revealed that the teams not going for Chris Gayle surprised him a lot. He also recalled how Gayle’s name came back three times into the auction before Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) finally bagged his services. Madley also felt that England captain Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow going unsold also left him perplexed.

“I pulled Chris Gayle’s bail out of the bag, called out his name and asked for his base price which I believe is Rs 2 Crores. There was no bid. Obviously, I looked at Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) who had let him go to maybe just test the water. I also looked at KKR as they had him before in one of the seasons. There was no bidding at all and that was perhaps one of the biggest surprises of the auction along with Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow,” he said.

As it turned out, on the third attempt and during the final stages of the event, KXIP went for him and he eventually has won them three matches so far in the tournament.

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