The auction for the 10th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) was organised on February 20, 2017 at Bengaluru. This year’s auction was special in the sense that it came at the end of the third three-year cycle. In all, 352 players went under the hammer and the franchises were able to buy only 75 players (including 28 overseas professionals) from the said pool. Before the auction started, the eight teams had released 161 players in all. Out of them, a couple of star attractions such as Kevin Pietersen and Mitchell Starc pulled out of the auction before it actually started.
How Did The Auction Happen?
In 2018, all the teams would be able to retain only around five players each and let go of the others. This is the reason why the teams did not go all out this year. They were very selective with their purchases. What also further hampered them was that they didn’t have a lot of money to begin with. The 351 players who went under the hammer were divided into groups based on their role as well as their base price. Then, they were kept in separate pots. The auctioneer started with the highest-priced players with base prices of Rs 2 crore. Then he gradually moved on to the lowest-paid set, where the players had a base price of Rs 1 lakh.
Before the lunchtime all the players had been auctioned once. After that there was a second round of auctioning, where the players unsold in the first round were given a chance. This was followed by a third round, where the players unsold in the second round received another go. This was perhaps supposed to go on until all the teams had filled their respective rosters. The bidding process was also quite simple and followed the template normally followed in the IPL so far.
The auctioneer named a player, declared his base price, and then teams either did not show any interest in him or bid for him. The bidding normally happened between two franchises or more and it continued till all but one went out of the bidding. A franchise representative could show interest by holding up the paddle each and every time his group wanted to buy a player. This saw several players – especially uncapped Indian players – earn big money for their services. At the same time, surprisingly enough some top-calibre players were given a miss.
Important Players Sold
Following is a list of capped players that were sold in the IPL 2017 auction:
| Name | Base price (in INR) | Final price (in INR) | Sold to |
| Eoin Morgan | 2 crore | 2 crore | Kings XI Punjab |
| Pawan Negi | 30 lakh | 1 crore | Royal Challengers Bangalore |
| Angelo Mathews | 2 crore | 2 crore | Delhi Daredevils |
| Ben Stokes | 2 crore | 14.5 crore | Rising Pune Supergiants |
| Corey Anderson | 1 crore | 1 crore | Delhi Daredevils |
| Nicholas Pooran | 30 lakh | 30 lakh | Mumbai Indians |
| Kagiso Rabada | 1 crore | 5 crore | Delhi Daredevils |
| Trent Boult | 1.5 crore | 5 crore | Kolkata Knight Riders |
| Tymal Mills | 50 lakh | 12 crore | Royal Challengers Bangalore |
| Pat Cummins | 2 crore | 4.5 crore | Delhi Daredevils |
| Mitchell Johnson | 2 crore | 2 crore | Mumbai Indians |
| Mohammad Nabi | 30 lakh | 30 lakh | Sunrisers Hyderabad |
| Rashid Khan | 50 lakh | 4 crore | Sunrisers Hyderabad |
| Chris Woakes | 2 crore | 4.2 crore | Kolkata Knight Riders |
| Karn Sharma | 30 lakh | 3.2 crore | Mumbai Indians |
| Rishi Dhawan | 30 lakh | 55 lakh | Kolkata Knight Riders |
| Matt Henry | 50 lakh | 50 lakh | Kings XI Punjab |
| Jaydev Unadkat | 30 lakh | 30 lakh | Rising Pune Supergiants |
| Varun Aaron | 30 lakh | 2.8 crore | Kings XI Punjab |
| Manpreet Gony | 30 lakh | 60 lakh | Gujarat Lions |
| Martin Guptill | 50 lakh | 50 lakh | Kings XI Punjab |
| Jason Roy | 1 crore | 1 crore | Gujarat Lions |
| Saurabh Tiwary | 30 lakh | 30 lakh | Mumbai Indians |
| Chris Jordan | 50 lakh | 50 lakh | Sunrisers Hyderabad |
| Nathan Coulter-Nile | 1 crore | 3.5 crore | Kolkata Knight Riders |
| Ben Laughlin | 30 lakh | 30 lakh | Sunrisers Hyderabad |
| Billy Stanlake | 30 lakh | 30 lakh | Royal Challengers Bangalore |
| Asela Gunaratne | 30 lakh | 30 lakh | Mumbai Indians |
| Daniel Christian | 1 crore | 1 crore | Rising Pune Supergiants |
| Rovman Powell | 30 lakh | 30 lakh | Kolkata Knight Riders |
| Munaf Patel | 30 lakh | 30 lakh | Gujarat Lions |
| Chirag Suri | 10 lakh | 10 lakh | Gujarat Lions |
| Lockie Ferguson | 50 lakh | 50 lakh | Rising Pune Supergiants |
| Manoj Tiwary | 50 lakh | 50 lakh | Rising Pune Supergiants |
| Darren Bravo | 50 lakh | 50 lakh | Kolkata Knight Riders |
Following is a list of capped players who were unsold:
| Player name | Base price (in INR) |
| Faiz Fazal | 30 lakh |
| Alex Hales | 1 crore |
| Ross Taylor | 50 lakh |
| Irfan Pathan | 50 lakh |
| Sean Abbott | 30 lakh |
| Ben Dunk | 30 lakh |
| Jonny Bairstow | 1.5 crore |
| Andre Fletcher | 30 lakh |
| Johnson Charles | 30 lakh |
| Dinesh Chandimal | 50 lakh |
| Kyle Abbott | 1.5 crore |
| Ishant Sharma | 2 crore |
| Lakshan Sandakan | 30 lakh |
| Ish Sodhi | 30 lakh |
| Brad Hogg | 50 lakh |
| Pragyan Ojha | 30 lakh |
| Imran Tahir | 50 lakh |
| Asghar Stanikzai | 20 lakh |
| Mohammad Shahzad | 50 lakh |
| Cheteshwar Pujara | 50 lakh |
| Abhinav Mukund | 30 lakh |
| Michael Klinger | 50 lakh |
| S Badrinath | 30 lakh |
| Marlon Samuels | 1 crore |
| Evin Lewis | 50 lakh |
| Nic Maddinson | 50 lakh |
| Parvez Rasool | 30 lakh |
| Jason Holder | 1.5 crore |
| David Wiese | 30 lakh |
| Thisara Perera | 50 lakh |
| Farhaan Behardien | 30 lakh |
| Anamul Hoque | 30 lakh |
| Shane Dowrich | 30 lakh |
| Kusal Perera | 50 lakh |
| Niroshan Dickwella | 30 lakh |
| Brad Haddin | 1.5 crore |
| Glenn Phillips | 10 lakh |
| RP Singh | 30 lakh |
| Pankaj Singh | 30 lakh |
| Fawad Ahmed | 30 lakh |
| Michael Beer | 30 lakh |
| Akila Dananjaya | 30 lakh |
| Nathan Lyon | 1.5 crore |
| Rahul Sharma | 30 lakh |
| Joe Burns | 30 lakh |
| Colin Munro | 50 lakh |
| James Neesham | 50 lakh |
| Wayne Parnell | 50 lakh |
| Mitchell Santner | 50 lakh |
| Colin de Grandhomme | 30 lakh |
| Andile Phehlukwayo | 1 crore |
| Dwaine Pretorius | 30 lakh |
| Ben Wheeler | 30 lakh |
| Kesrick Williams | 30 lakh |
| Mehedi Hassan Miraz | 30 lakh |
| Mahmudullah | 30 lakh |
| Sabbir Rahman | 30 lakh |
| Ashton Turner | 20 lakh |
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