New Delhi: It’s been 15 years since the first IPL auction. 8 franchises had bid for legendary cricketers from all over the world including India. Everyone’s auction purse had 5 million dollars i.e. 20 crore 6 lakh in rupees of that time. In the first auction in IPL history, all eyes were on one player. Teams were ready to give crores to take this player in their team. When the bidding started, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings openly bid for the veteran. This player was none other than Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the former captain of Team India. Let’s know the full story of that IPL auction.
N. Srinivasan was more keen on Sehwag
IPL was started in the year 2008. The first IPL players auction took place on 20 February 2008 at a posh hotel in Mumbai. In this auction, bids were made for many star players from all over the world. India Cements chief and CSK owner N Srinivasan was more keen on Sehwag. But at that time VB Chandrasekhar, who was associated with the Chennai team, convinced him to include Dhoni in the team.
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#OnThisDay in 2008,
All the franchises fought hard to buy one player and he was sold to @ChennaiIPL for 1.5 million.
And the rest is yellove’ly history!💛#Dhoni #MSDhoni #WhistlePodu pic.twitter.com/gZYFbr2jaz
— WhistlePodu Army ® – CSK Fan Club (@CSKFansOfficial) February 20, 2023
N. Srinivasan’s Chennai Super Kings ms dhoni was purchased for $1.5 million. The new poster boy of India, the captain of the ODI team and the 2007 ICC T20 World Cup winning Indian team was the highest bidder. In an interview, Srinivasan revealed that he missed the first two picks in the IPL auction. VB Chandrasekhar wanted Dhoni at any cost.
Dhoni was bought by CSK for $1.5 million.
He said that other teams wanted the icon player. Punjab wanted Yuvraj Singh, Delhi wanted Virender Sehwag, Bangalore wanted Rahul Dravid, Mumbai wanted Sachin Tendulkar. When the auction began, Dhoni’s bids started from a base price of US$400,000 and crossed US$900,000. Two teams were bidding for Dhoni, Mumbai Indians and CSK. Dhoni was finally bought by CSK for $1.5 million.
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These were the 5 most expensive players of the first IPL auction
MS Dhoni (Indian wicketkeeper): Rs 6.01 crore (Chennai Super Kings)
Andrew Symonds (Australian batsman): Rs 5.41 crore (Deccan Chargers)
Sanath Jayasuriya (Sri Lankan batsman): Rs 3.91 crore (Mumbai Indians)
Ishant Sharma (Indian bowler): Rs 3.81 crore (Kolkata Knight Riders)
Irfan Pathan (Indian all-rounder): Rs 3.71 crore (Kings XI Punjab)
Dhoni was retained by the Super Kings for Rs 12 crore ahead of the 2022 players’ auction. Dhoni led the Super Kings from the very first season in 2008. CSK has made it to the playoffs in every IPL except 2020 and 2022.
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