Pant and Iyer shatter IPL pay record with eye-watering auction deals

Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer bagged eye-watering $3m-plus deals in Sunday's Indian Premier League (IPL) auction shattering the previous payment record in the world's richest T20 tournament.

When Punjab Kings secured middle-order batter Iyer's service for a staggering 267.5-million Indian rupees ($3.17m, or R57.6m) after a fierce bidding war, it eclipsed Mitchell Starc's nearly $3m deal with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in last year's auction.

The bidding war in Jeddah further intensified for India wicketkeeper-batter Pant, who captained Delhi Capitals across three seasons but was released before this year's mega auction in Saudi Arabia.

It ended with Lucknow Super Giants splurging 270-million Indian rupees ($3.2m, or R58.1m) to sign Pant, who is likely to lead the franchise in next year's IPL.

Lucknow made the first move and fought off bids from Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Sunrisers Hyderabad as well as Delhi to rope in the 27-year-old celebrated for his six-hitting ability.

Starc was signed up by Delhi for 117.5-million rupees, a modest sum after the Australian's hefty payday last year.

Gujarat Titans signed up England white-ball captain Jos Buttler for 157.5-million rupees, while also picking up South African speedster Kagiso Rabada.

A total of 574 players have registered for the two-day auction ahead of next year's edition of the 10-team tournament.

Royal Challengers also made a late swoop to re-sign their former seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar for 107.5-million Indian rupees ($1.28m) on the second day of the auction in Saudi Arabia on Monday.

The bidding war for the experienced Indian pacer looked to be between Mumbai Indians and Lucknow Super Giants but Bengaluru stepped in to secure his services with their first bid, boosting their bowling attack for next season.

Deepak Chahar went to Mumbai for 92.5-million rupees while Delhi Capitals acquired Mukesh Kumar for 80 million rupees and Akash Deep joined Lucknow for 80-million rupees on Monday as Indian pace bowlers attracted big money.

Punjab Kings fought off Mumbai and Gujarat Titans to sign South African all-rounder Marco Jansen for 70-million rupees.

All-rounder Daryl Mitchell, who joined Chennai Super Kings for a bumper 140-million rupees last year, was unsold during the early bidding along with New Zealand teammates Kane Williamson and Glenn Phillips.

England's Sam Curran was among a number of players heading back to Chennai, joining them for 24-million rupees in what was a bargain compared to the 185-million rupees that Punjab had paid in 2022.

Mumbai bolstered their attack with Afghanistan spinner Allah Ghazanfar for 48-million rupees and India all-rounder Washington Sundar was a steal for Gujarat at 32-million rupees.

Reuters