Richard Madley Recalls How MS Dhoni Started First Bidding War In IPL 2008 Auction

Former IPL Auctioneer Richard Madley recalled the moment when MS Dhoni was sold to Chennai Super Kings but not before the iconic cricketer had captivated franchises in a bidding war.

Indian Premier League was a brainchild of former BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi after the Indian team’s success in the 2007 World T20 in South Africa.

Richard Madley conducted IPL auctions for 11 seasons

The IPL will enter its 15th year as it has been amusing the fans of the game worldwide with a plethora of euphoric moments and thrill.

Richard Madley, who hails from Wales, was the auctioneer for the lucrative event, he conducted the IPL auctions right from its first season until 2018.

MS Dhoni, who led India to the inaugural T20 World Cup title, was in the limelight of every franchise. CSK was in a tough battle with its eventual arch-rivals Mumbai Indians to get the services of the Indian wicketkeeper-batter.

As we all know, Dhoni ended up in the CSK camp for a whopping sum of USD 1.5 million and the rest is history. CSK were pipped by Shane Warne-led Rajasthan Royals in the inaugural edition of the IPL.

The ultimate all-rounder MS Dhoni: Richard Madley

Madley went down the memory lane to highlight the auctions of Dhoni and Warne in 2008.

“I remember the second player coming out of the bag that day was Shane Warne. I thought okay here’s Warnie and this will be interesting, his base price was I think around 400000 US dollars. That’s what he sold for at his base price to Rajasthan Royals and I thought at that time that was a smart move,” Madley told Ravichandran Ashwin on the latter’s YouTube channel.

“For the next 10 years, I watched Rajasthan Royals be the coolest bidders in the room. They never got excited, Manoj Badale was just cool and a pattern started to emerge. Then out of the bag came the man himself, the ultimate all-rounder Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and there we saw the first bidding war of many in the IPL auctions,” he added.

Richard Madley was replaced by Hugh Edmeades in the 2019 IPL auction. The IPL 2022 mega auction will take place on February 12 & 13 in Bengaluru.

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