Australian captain Pat Cummins and David Warner are best placed to be the big money winners at the Indian Premier League mega-auction after being placed in an exclusive group of 10 “marquee” players for what looms as a spending extravaganza.
The pair are among 47 Australians who are in the final auction pool, likely headed for new teams on contracts in excess of $2m. T20 World Cup hero Mitch Marsh is also expected to get a seven-figure payday, with two new teams set to splash the cash on February 12 and 13.
The list also includes teenage hopeful Aidan Cahill, who is with Australia‘s squad at the under-19 World Cup in the Caribbean.
But fast bowler Jhye Richardson, who scored a massive $2.4m IPL contract last year, is not on the list, with his workload being significantly managed. It was confirmed last week that he would also skip the upcoming Pakistan tour.
Fellow quick Mitchell Starc is the only member of Australia’s T20 World Cup-winning team not in the auction having declared he was “the click of a button away” from entering before opting to “refresh the body, and for me, that’s prioritising Aussie games”.
The world’s best Test batsman, Marnus Labuschagne, is also on a list of Australians that includes Big Bash player of the tournament Ben McDermott and Chris Lynn.
Star Australian all-rounders Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis have already been signed on big-money deals before the auction.
Starc said last week he didn’t want to spend another long period in a bubble, with Australia set to tour Pakistan before the IPL and Sri Lanka after the tournament.
“I was a click of the button away from entering the auctions but personally didn’t want to spend 22 more weeks in a bubble, needed some time to refresh the body, and for me, that’s prioritising Aussie games,” said Starc, who won his maiden Allan Border Medal on the weekend.
Australian chairman of selectors George Bailey waved off concerns about workload for most players when asked about them going to the IPL during the biggest touring year since 2019.
Bailey said there was much to gain from the IPL on top of the huge financial contracts, and he was happy for Australians to play, particularly ahead of the T20 World Cup title defence and then balance their international duties accordingly.
“It’s tough for the multi-format guys to work out that balance of where do they get time to physically replenish their energy reserves, particularly for fast bowlers, to make sure they are fit, strong and able to deal with the workload,” Bailey said.
“But that’s part and parcel of a modern cricketer’s life.
“It (the IPL) continues to be a tournament that offers a huge amount to players.
“From a learning perspective and I don’t think the monetary side of things can be discounted … for a reasonably brief period of work, the paydays are pretty enormous for a certain percentage of them.”
The IPL is expected to begin on March 27, which is while Australia will still be in Pakistan. Three ODIs and a single T20 are needed to complete that tour, demanding the presence of white-ball players.
The fixture also has Australia playing three ODIs in New Zealand during the Test matches against Pakistan.
But the status of that tour is unknown after the Kiwis abandoned a one-day tour of Australia thxjmtzywat was supposed to start on January 30.
Australians in the 2022 IPL auction: Pat Cummins, David Warner, Steve Smith, Mitch Marsh, Matthew Wade, Josh Hazlewood, Adam Zampa, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Ashton Agar, Aaron Finch, Chris Lynn, Usman Khawaja, Kane Richardson, Marnus Labuschagne, Daniel Sams, Andrew Tye, Moises Henriques, Riley Meredith, James Faulkner, D‘Arcy Short, Josh Philippe, Nathan Ellis, Jason Behrendorff, Sean Abbott, Billy Stanlake, Ben Cutting, Ben McDermott, Kurtis Patterson, Wes Agar, Jack Wildermuth, Joel Paris, Hilton Cartwright, Tim David, Chris Green, Ben Dwarshuis, Matt Kelly, Hayden Kerr, Tanveer Sangha, Alex Ross, Jake Weatherald, Nathan McAndrew, Tom Rogers, Liam Guthrie, Liam Hatcher, Jason Sangha, Matt Short, Aidan Cahill.
