IPL 2024

Aakash Chopra ‘hurt personally’ after Indian T20 League auction records get broken by foreign players

The Indian T20 League Auction broke multiple records on Friday. Sam Curran, Ben Stokes and Cameron Green all broke or matched the earlier record for the costliest purchase. English all-rounder Curran became the costliest player at the auction after Punjab Franchise bid INR 18.5 Crore for the 24-year-old.

Stokes for INR 17.5 Crore to Chennai and Green for INR 16.25 Crore also broke and matched Chris Morris’s earlier record of INR 16.25 Crore for the most expensive player when the Rajasthan franchise shelled INR 16.25 Crore at the 2021 auction.

While the foreign players must have licked their lips at the thought of being expensive buys at the auction, it wasn’t so for the Indian players. The Indian player that went for the highest amount at the mini-auction was Mayank Agarwal who was bought for INR 8.25 Crore by Hyderabad. Former Indian player Aakash Chopra has now shown displeasure at foreign players getting the most amount of money.

“One thing that hurt me personally is that while the likes of Sam Curran, Cameron Green and Ben Stokes were sold for such big amounts, Indian players like Jasprit Bumrah got just 12-14 crore and batters like Rishabh Pant just got 15-16 crore. This is the Indian Premier League, but unfortunately, Indian players aren’t the costliest.”

Indian players have to be content- Chopra

He also suggested that players like Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant would break the record for most expensive buys if they choose to come into the auction. Chopra wasn’t impressed by the fact that a player like Pandya gets less amount of money than Green or Brook from the Indian T20 League.

“If these Indian players choose to come in the auction, these teams will break the bank to get them. But since they opt out of coming in the auctions, they have to be content with 15-16 crore while players like Cameron Green go for 17.5 crores. That is incorrect in my opinion,” concluded the commentator.