Bangladeshis unsold as Curran breaks IPL auction record

All three Bangladeshi cricketers -- Shakib Al Hasan, Liton Das, and Taskin Ahmed -- remained unsold while England all-rounder Sam Curran became the Indian Premier League's (IPL) most expensive ever buy in the players' auction in Kochi on Friday ahead of the 2023 season. 

There were no takers for Bangladesh's Test and T20I skipper Shakib, who had a base pice of rupees 1.5 crore. The all-rounder was overlooked in the auction of the previous edition of the money-spinning league earlier this year. 

The franchises were also not eager to pick Taskin and Liton, who had base price of 50 lakh rupees. A total of four Bangladeshi players were named in the IPL auction among the 405 cricketers. Afif Hossain, also drafted at 50 lakh rupees base price category, did not go under the hammer.  

Meanwhile, Curran returned to the Punjab Kings for the staggering sum of 185 million Indian rupees ($2.23 million) following a fierce bidding war involving the Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians.

Meanwhile, Curran, who was player-of-the-series in England's T20 World Cup triumph in Australia this year, previously featured for the Punjab Kings in 2019.

"Back to where it all started! Looking forward to it," tweeted the 24-year-old.

The fee for Curran surpassed the previous highest bid of 162.5 million rupees, paid by the Rajasthan Royals for South African all-rounder Chris Morris last year.

The previous record fee paid for Morris was broken once more on Friday, with Mumbai Indians paying 175 million rupees for Australian all-rounder Cameron Green.

"I'm pinching myself that this has all happened," Green, 23, said in comments released by Cricket Australia.

"It's such a weird feeling watching an auction for yourself. I can't believe how nervous I was and I was shaking like anything when the final call was confirmed."

The Super Kings made up for missing out on Curran by signing England red-ball captain Ben Stokes for 162.5 million rupees.

Batsman Harry Brook, who made his England Twenty20 international and test debuts this year, became the first millionaire of the day after being signed by Sunrisers Hyderabad for 132.5 million rupees.