Former Auctioneer Narrates Story Of IPL's "First Bidding War" For MS Dhoni

MS Dhoni is considered by many to be Chennai Super Kings' (CSK) most successful player in Indian Premier League (IPL) history. The veteran wicketkeeper-batter will be captaining CSK once again in IPL 2022 after being retained by the franchise. Having led CSK to four IPL titles, he will be once again hoping to impress in the upcoming season. Ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction, former IPL auctioneer Richard Madley shared an interesting story on how Dhoni started "the first bidding war" in the tournament's auction history, with CSK buying the former captain for 1.5 million dollars. In a candid conversation with Ravichandran Ashwin, Madley opened up about the inaugural IPL 2008 auction. He also spoke about how buying Shane Warne was a "smart move" by Rajasthan Royals (RR), who won the 2008 edition.

"The second player to come out on that day was Shane Warne, Australian bowler and I thought okay here's Warnie and now this will be interesting. His base price was real. We sold then in US dollars if you remember. We hadn't moved to rupees. I think Warnie had a base price of 400,000 US dollars and that's what he was sold for. He sold on the reserve price to the Rajasthan Royals. I thought at the time that's a smart move", he said.

Madley stated that the auction gathered intensity and excitement on the arrival of Dhoni, whom he called the "ultimate all-rounder".

"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 said.

Promoted

Dhoni led CSK to their fourth IPL title last season, when they defeated Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the final.

Other than Dhoni, CSK have retained Ravindra Jadeja, Moeen Ali and Ruturaj Gaikwad