The Only Auction Battle Where All IPL Teams Wanted One Player
The IPL auction has seen tense battles between two or three teams for one player. Such battles have often resulted in high bids being placed only for one player. But there has been a rare occasion in the auction, where all the teams clashed to get just one player on their side.
Over the last few seasons, we have witnessed a number of IPL auctions. And for the players who received the highest biddings, only half of the teams who were present on the auction table were able to participate in the same. Whether it is Rishabh Pant or Pat Cummins or Cameron Green, the biddings were high but the competition remained close.
But imagine a scenario, where all the teams sitting on the auction table place their bids for one player. It seems just like an imaginable scenario right? Instead, this has actually happened in the IPL during its inaugural season, where eight teams participated in the bidding war for one player.
And that player is none other than the Captain Cool, MS Dhoni.
The Historic IPL Bidding War
MS Dhoni remains the only player in the history of the Indian Premier League, for whom every team has raised the bar and participated in the bidding process. He entered the auction table once in the tournament history, and went on to create a record which has not even been touched by the other players.
In IPL 2008, Dhoni's name was announced at the auction table with the biddings starting at 400,000 US dollars. Since the amount was low at this point, every team participated in the same. Slowly when the amount started to increase, the number of teams who stood active in this deal also started to decrease.
When the price touched 900,000 US dollars, only Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings stood in the battle. This was ultimately won by the Chennai Super Kings, as they were able to get Dhoni to their line-up for a whopping total of 1.5 million US dollars. He was also the most expensive player in the inaugural season of the tournament.
Mumbai Indians had to stop bidding since they would have to pay 15% more than Dhoni to Sachin Tendulkar, which would affect their balance.