’20 crore was salary cap of a team in 2008′ – Venky Mysore puts Mitchell Starc’s record-breaking bid in perspective

At the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 Auction in Dubai on December 19, Australia’s World Cup-winning captain Pat Cummins set a new record as Sunrisers Hyderabad secured him for a historic sum of INR 20.50 crore.

Just a little while later, Cummins’ teammate Mitchell Starc broke his record as he fetched an all-time high bid of INR 24.75 crore from Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Notably, this marks the second time that KKR have signed the left-arm pacer, having initially acquired him in 2018 for INR 9.4 crore.

Reflecting on the event at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai, Venky Mysore, KKR Managing Director, recalled that during the inaugural season of the lucrative league, all teams operated with a salary cap of INR 20 crore.

“Well, you know, I think my take on this is if you sort of look at it from the set of lenses of a price you pay for a player. And now it seems like wow, 24.75. I was telling someone that the salary cap of a team when IPL started in 2008 was 20 crores, the entire salary cap. So things have changed, right? But, you know, I think our view is, when the auction is over, all the 10 teams are going to walk out of the auction having spent 100 crores and each team decides to slice it differently. So what you’ve paid to somebody up down what not is matter of perspective. Ultimately, we’re all spending the same amount of money,” said Mysore.

It is worth mentioning that KKR didn’t participate in the IPL’s lengthy bidding process from the beginning. Initially, Delhi Capitals expressed interest in Starc, starting with a base price of INR 2 crore. Mumbai Indians countered until an INR 8 crore offer, prompting the two-time champions to enter the bidding. After a prolonged battle with Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans, KKR eventually secured Starc for a substantial sum of INR 24.75 crore.

KKR actively participated in the bidding for West Indies captain Rovman Powell and star England all-rounder Chris Woakes. Additionally, they made significant signings including young Indian pacer Chetan Sakariya, Indian wicketkeeper-batter KS Bharat, and uncapped Mumbai batter Angkrish Raghuvanshi.

“When you plan your team, from a retention standpoint, with the auction so far away, you have no idea of who are the other players from other teams who are being released, trades happening, and all that. So it’s a very dynamic environment. So you don’t also go into the auction with a mindset… I mean, we had options. You have to have options, like like they do. We could have been in the same shoes answering saying, Sorry, we lost out to GT. And we have a plan. And so I think everybody comes with their own plans. We’ve been around long enough. I mean, I don’t know this is my 14th auction,” Mysore said. 

“And so, you know, you win some, you lose some, and you just have to be prepared. So it wasn’t like you came in with that mindset, but obviously he was a preferred player from that skill set standpoint. It all sometimes works out. Initially, we were not successful in some of the bids. Maybe that worked in our favour, because we did end up having money to do this, otherwise, we might not have been able to do it. So we’re just thankful that we were able to have him on our side,” he added.