"Unfortunately, Indian players aren't the costliest.." Aakash Chopra reveals the reality of IPL Auctions

IPL Auction [Source: Twitter]

The recently held Indian Premier League Auction was a full blown show of money and big bids. Franchises spent giant loads of money on players, but interestingly, the most amount of money was spent on international players and not local players. 

Former Indian cricketer and commentator Aakash Chopra expressed his disappointment with the auction, highlighting that IPL seems to be for the international players more than Indian players. He stated that players like Rishabh Pant, Virat Kohli etc not being the highest bids was unfortunate. 

English all-rounder Sam Curran was sold to the Punjab Kings for INR 18.5 cr, Cameron Green was sold at INR 17.5 cr to Mumbai Indians, while Ben Stokes was sold to Chennai Super Kings for 16.25 cr, becoming the top three highest buys in the history of the auction. 

Aakash Chopra calls the auction "Unfortunate"

"One thing that hurt me personally is that while the likes of Sam Curran, Cameron Green and Ben Stokes were sold for such big amounts, Indian players like Jasprit Bumrah got just 12-14 crore and batters like Rishabh Pant just got 15-16 crore. This is the Indian Premier League, but unfortunately, Indian players aren't the costliest."

"If these Indian players choose to come in the auction, these teams will break the bank to get them. But since they opt out of coming in the auctions, they have to be content with 15-16 crore while players like Cameron Green go for 17.5 crore. That is incorrect in my opinion."

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