When India were pushing Australia to their limits in Perth through the four days of the first Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the IPL mega auction, taking place all the way back in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, was already making its presence felt in and about the Optus Stadium. Such was the magnitude of the auction, that players, broadcasters and Australian media alike could not keep themselves from making it an integral part of the discussion. This is the BGT, after all, world cricket’s greatest rivalry, and yet it was fascinating to see how, at times, it dwarfed one of the biggest and greatest T20 leagues in the world – the Indian Premier League.
The IPL has undoubtedly brought players from different countries together. One of the reasons why the India vs Australia rivalry is no longer as fierce as it was, say, around the 2017 series, is the IPL. And understandably so. When international opponents become teammates for two months with so much on the line, they form a camaraderie. How else do you explain Mitchell Marsh and Rishabh Pant, former Delhi Capitals teammates, bumping fists when Australia had India on the mat on Day 1? Or how Mitchell Starc and Harshit Rana, who shared the Kolkata Knight Riders dressing room earlier this year, were involved in a friendly banter?
In fact, the IPL auction had grabbed the attention of Indians and Australians from Day 1 itself. When Pant was batting, the stump mic lapped Nathan Lyon’s IPL jibe. After Lyon teased Pant by asking, “Where are we going in the auction?” the India wicketkeeper batter ended it then and there by replying “No idea”. That wasn’t all. On Day 3, when Pant charged down to Marsh off the first ball he faced and missed, Virat Kohli, and the non-striker’s end, without being needled, said, “He doesn’t need to go big, he is going big anyway in the auction”. How spot on was Kohli, as hours later, Pant became the costliest buy ever in IPL history, securing a paycheque of ₹27 crore from Lucknow Super Giants.
Australians equally captivated by auction
The euphoria of the mega-auction gripped the Australians too. Even before the match, when asked about the IPL auction coinciding with the Test match, Aussie captain Pat Cummins said that while he expected some of his teammates to fetch big bucks, it won’t be a ‘distraction’ for his players. Heck, even the broadcasters couldn’t keep calm. Shortly after the Test match, one of the presenters remarked on live TV, “Hazlewood just secured a big paycheque; so did Pant.” Hazlewood reunited with his previous team Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after grabbing 4/29 in the first innings.
Lastly, how can one forget that Ricky Ponting had to leave his broadcasting duties with Channel 7 and Australia’s assistant coach Daniel Vettori his team to reach Jeddah in time for the mega auction. Ponting even voiced out loud his frustrations with the scheduling, but would return a happy man, knowing he was able in assembling a solid squad for Punjab Kings. As would Vettori, whose Sunrisers Hyderabad shelled out ₹44.80 crore to buy 20 players.
