This is the first time in the IPL's 16-year history that a lady auctioneer will preside over proceedings at an IPL auction.
'Mallika Sagar is a terrific auctioneer. Confident, clear and very poised. Straight away the right choices in the WPL. Well done @BCCI'.
While the newest addition are players from the Northeastern states, Uttarakhand and Bihar, there will also be 232 overseas players, who have thrown their hat in the ring. There are 800 uncapped players with 746 being Indians.
Shah Rukh Khan, owner of the Kolkata franchise, and Mumbai franchise owner and billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani did not turn up; their representatives will do the bidding.
'I think they (Mumbai) realised they would have to pay Sachin $1.65 million and Dhoni $1.5 million, five million was the purse and sixty per cent of the purse would go to these two players.' 'So they stopped and that's how we got Dhoni.'
There is no clarity on the number of players in the auction pool because the deadline for franchises to prune the original list has been deferred to February 4.
This year's auctions will wrap up in one day.
Yuvraj Singh and Hashim Amla will be the star attractions in the Indian Premier League 8 auction, which will see quite a few Indian and international players go under the hammer in Bengaluru on Monday.
Controversial England batsman Kevin Pietersen will be one of the first players to go under the hammer, along with senior India discards Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh, when the two-day auction for the cash-rich IPL commences in Bangalore on February 12. The initial list of 651 players was pruned to 514, including 219 capped players, by the IPL governing council.
Rajneesh Gupta gives you the numbers-that-matter from the IPL auction 2017.
Yuvraj Singh has emerged as the costliest cricketer in the IPL 8 players' auction, bought for a record Rs 16 crore (USD 2.57 million approx) by Delhi Daredevils.
England all-rounder Ben Stokes became the most expensive overseas purchase -- bought by Rising Pune Supergiants for a whopping Rs 14.50 crore even as some unheralded Indian domestic players trumped seasoned names to land lucrative deals at the Indian Premier League players' auction.
India Test regulars like Cheteswar Pujara and Ishant Sharma have also thrown their hat into the ring with base prices of Rs 50 and Rs 75 lakh respectively.