Cameroon Green made history in the IPL mini auction as Kolkata Knight Riders won a bid for him at 25.2 crore, the highest ever for an overseas player at an auction.
Australian Green, who has figured in the first two Ashes Test matches against England, had played for Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2024. He had scored 255 runs at a strike rate of 143.25 in 12 innings. The pacer had also scalped 10 wickets in 13 matches with the ball at an economy of 8.61. Green had earlier played for Mumbai Indians, from where he was traded.
“Very happy, something we were focused on and hoping. Happy with the price with which we got him. Always a concern as to what we would’ve done had the price gone higher. Fact is we were very keen, but not so attached,” said KKR’s Venky Mysore after the franchisees successful bid.
“If we felt it would affect rest of the auction, we would’ve let it go. Fortunately, came within the range we were looking at. He adds lot to our team, especially with our new power coach Andre Russell, very nice to have a young allrounder. Him having had IPL experience, we know what he does with bat and ball. Couldn’t be happier. Tough to say how far we would’ve gone, lot of it would’ve depended on rest of the plans. We were getting close,” he added.
Green will earn only Rs 18 crore
Though the winning bid was for Rs 25.2 crore, Green can only earn Rs 18 crore. This is because of the new “maximum fee” rule that the IPL brought in last year to address the collective concern of franchises that some overseas players were registering exclusively at mini auctions to exploit the supply-demand imbalance. Consequently, the IPL put in the maximum-fee rule where the overseas player cannot be paid more than Rs 18 crore, which was the highest slab for franchises retaining players ahead of the 2025 mega auction.
If the bid exceeded the Rs 18-crore mark, the additional money, the IPL said, would be utilised by the BCCI for player welfare. In a note to franchises last year, the IPL said: “Any overseas player’s auction fee at small auction will be lower than the highest retention price (of Rs 18 crore) and the highest auction price at the big auction. In case the highest auction price at the big auction is Rs 20 crore, then Rs 18 crore will be the cap. If the highest auction price at big auction is Rs 16 crore, then the cap will be Rs 16 crore.”
During the auction, Mumbai Indians opened the bid for Rs 2 crore and Rajasthan Royals jumped into the fray. KKR raised the bid to Rs 2.8 crore but soon it soared past Rs 8 crore as KKR and RR slugged it out.
Royals then raised the bid to Rs 11.8 crore and KKR took it to Rs 12 crore. RR made a bid for Rs 13.6 crore and CSK then joined the fray at Rs 13.8 crore. With RR seem to have had enough of it, the slugfest was between CSK and KKR. The bid soon zoomed past Rs 16.2 crore.
KKR raised it to Rs 18.4 crore and CSK upped it to Rs 18.6 crore. KKR then took it to Rs 19.2 crore and CSK were not giving up. They raised the bid to Rs 21 crore and KKR said Rs 21.6 crore.
CSK were not giving up, and the bid went to Rs 23 crore with CSK holding the aces. KKR raised it to Rs 24 crore and finally bags Green at 25.2 crore.
