[Exclusive] Currency shift from USD to INR in IPL Auctions: Richard Madley Explains

IPL auctioneer Richard Madley. (Photo Source: Twitter)

In the initial years, the transactions in the IPL (Indian Premier League) auctions used to happen in US dollars (USD). That is, the auctioneer used to introduce a cricketer, stating its base price in USD. However, the rule changed later on, as the IPL governing council asked the auctioneer to refer to the Indian Rupees (INR) in the player auction. Revealing the reason behind that, former IPL auctioneer Richard Madley stated that the franchises had issues in dealing in USD.

There was also a constant change in the value of USD in comparison to INR, which further complicated it for the owners and the team management. He noted that the franchises were more comfortable in dealing it INR as the process became more controllable, manageable and budget-able for all the teams. He added that due to his experience in the USA, it was easy for him to deal in USD but due to these problems, it had to be changed.

“We were still selling in US dollars and having been an auctioneer in New York for 10 years, I was very used to selling in US dollars, it was very easy for me, but it didn’t suit the franchise owners. The currency fluctuations were moving in favour of the players,” Madley told exclusively to CricTracker.

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“The players liked being sold in US dollars, as the dollar strengthened against the rupee and the decision was therefore made then to change the currency into Indian Rupees (INR) as opposed to USD, which just made it more controllable, more manageable, more budget-able for the franchise owners,” he added.

IPL 2024 mega auction to start on November 24

The upcoming edition of the IPL mega auction is set to take place on November 24 and 25 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Several marquee players including Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Trent Boult, Mitchell Starc, Mohammed Shami, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jos Buttler and David Miller among several others will go under the hammer.