Richard Madley is one name that comes to our mind when we think about IPL Auctions. Although he does not conduct it now, the way he did it in the past still triggers a few nostalgic memories. Recently, he sat down for a conversation with Ravichandran Ashwin on the latter’s YouTube channel. The duo spoke about a variety of topics, including the auctioning of MS Dhoni in IPL 2008. In this article, we take a look as Richard Madley recalls the first-ever bidding war in IPL Auction history.
The First-ever bidding war in IPL auction history
Richard Madley looked back at the first time when a bidding war happened at the auctions. It was for the sale of MS Dhoni. Apart from Chennai Super Kings, who eventually landed him at USD 1.5 million, other teams such as Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore were interested in the then Indian T20 skipper.
Speaking about when MS Dhoni’s emerged, Richard Madley said, “Then out of the bag came the man himself, the ultimate all-rounder Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and there we saw the first bidding war of many in the IPL auctions.”
He said that although multiple teams were interested, CSK’s N Srinivasan was intent on hiring Dhoni. After they procured him, the rest has been history. MS Dhoni still plays for the franchise and will take part in IPL 2022.
IPL 2022 Mega-Auctions set to happen this weekend
Meanwhile, the countdown has started for the IPL 2022 Mega-Auctions. The event will happen on February 12th and 13th in Bengaluru. Two more teams have joined the competition and as per a few reports, the upcoming bidding event will be the last mega-auction that the IPL will host. The event will feature some top stars such as David Warner, Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer apart from veterans like Suresh Raina and Robin Uthappa.
