The English cricketer Ben Stokes became the highest priced overseas player while Black Cap Trent Boult became a million dollar man at the Indian Premier League auction.
Trent Boult. Photo: Photosport
Stokes fetched $3 million in the IPL auction, with the Rising Pune Supergiants splashing out in a frenzied bidding war to land the explosive all-rounder.
The Pune franchise fought off Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi and Hyderabad to get the 25-year-old, despite his limited availability for the Twenty20 competition.
Boult went to Kolkata Knight Riders in what is one understood to be the highest or second highest price paid for a New Zealand after Brendon McCullum.
Boult and South African Kagiso Rabada were the third equal best price on the day.
Corey Anderson went to Delhi for 200 thousand dollars, Matt Henry and Martin Guptill to Kings XI Punjab for a hundred thousand each and Lockie Ferguson to Rising Pune Supergiants for a hundred thousand.
New Zealanders to go unsold include Ross Taylor, Ish Sodhi, Neil Broom, Grant Elliott and Jimmy Neesham.
Current and former Black Caps Brendon McCullum, Tim Southee, Kane Williamson, Mitchell McClenaghan and Adam Milne already had contracts.
Meanwhile with England hosting South Africa in a one-day series in May, Stokes is set to miss the final phase of the April 5-May 21 tournament, yet the bidding surged from his base price of 20 million rupees.
Pune owner Sanjiv Goenka told reporters that Stokes, now the most expensive overseas player in IPL history, would bring something new to the team for the 10th edition of the tournament.
"He's a complete player and he completes our squad. We've been lacking this one genre of player," he said.
"We knew he was going to be there for the first 14 games ... We pretty much knew we were not going to get him for below this price."
Tymal Mills, Stokes's England Twenty20 team mate, was snapped up for 2.4 million by Royal Challengers Bangalore, who will look to benefit from the left-arm fast bowler's ability to combine great pace with economy.
All-rounder Chris Woakes was the third England player to get a hefty payday, going to Kolkata Knight Riders for 42 million rupees.
Owners mostly gave the cold shoulder to slow bowlers, with South African leg-spinner Imran Tahir, who tops both the one-day and Twenty20 bowling rankings, unsold.
Mohammad Nabi became the first Afghanistan player to be bought in the IPL with Sunrisers Hyderabad signing him and Afghan leg-spinner Rashid Khan.
-Reuters/RNZ
