Dhoni, who had just led India to the T20 World Cup title in 2007, was the hottest property with the IPL taking place. Madley, who was present as the auctioneer, recollected how the first set of players to come out of the bag fared in the first ever auction that took place on February 20.
In a conversation with Ravichandran Ashwin on his YouTube channel, Richard Madley said:
The 64-year-old Richard Madley added:
While MS Dhoni didn’t have a home team, Chennai opted not to pick any icon players. A couple of franchises showed interest in the former Indian cricketer, especially Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings.
However, the huge pay cheque of USD 1.65 million was allotted to Sachin Tendulkar and the signing of Dhoni was at USD 1.5 million.
Speaking further on his experience from the first season of the T20 league, Richard Madley stressed on a funny incident when a journalist asked him about sharing the room with Bollywood icon Shahrukh Khan.
He added:
However, Richard Madley was stripped of auction duties post IPL 2018 and there was no formal statement from the BCCI.
“Freddie Flintoff bought me a drink” - Richard Madley on making players millionaires
Diving deep into the difference between IPL auctions and other auctions, Richard Madley highlighted that the auctioneer gets a fixed pay IPL as opposed to commissions for taking the price higher in other auctions.
Richard Madley signed off on a funny note, stressing that no cricketer has offered him any incentives to make them millionaires apart from former England all-rounder Freddie Flintoff, who bought the former a beer in South Africa a couple of years back.
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