NEW DELHI, India, Former West Indies Twenty20 International captain Nicholas Pooran headed five players from the Caribbean picked up in the Indian Premier League auction on Friday.
Pooran started the year by becoming the most expensive West Indes player sold at an IPL auction, and he broke that record again when Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) spent close to U.S. $1.951 million to buy him for the next season.
For a while, the fight for Pooran seemed to be a contest between Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals, but once Super Giants swooped in with a bid nearing a million dollars, it became a two-team race between them and Capitals.
The other West Indies players that were bought in the auction among 29 from outside India were: Barbadian all-rounder Jason Holder to Rajasthan Royals for U.S. $701 000, Trinidadian left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein to Sunrisers Hyderabad for U.S. $121 000, Guyanese all-rounder Romario Shepherd for U.S. $60 000 to LSG, and Jamaican pacer Odean Smith to Gujarat Titans for U.S. $60 000.
St Lucian batsman Johnson Charles and Guyanese left-hander Sherfane Rutherford were the only two West Indies players that remained unsold after the auction.
The auction concluded in New Delhi with 80 players being sold, and England all-rounder Sam Curran becoming the most expensive buy in the history of the auction when Punjab Kings outbid five other teams to sign him for about U.S. $2.25 million.
Curran was the Player-of-the-Final and the Player-of-the-Tournament at Australia’s 2022 ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup.
The ten franchises shelled out more than U.S. $20 million for some of the finest talent available, giving them a chance to unleash their potential and impact the tournament’s upcoming edition.
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