Cameron Green could well be the biggest beneficiary of IPL's skewed demand-supply market dynamic surrounding seam-bowling all-rounders during the mini-auction here on Tuesday with Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings seemingly ready to break the bank for the Australian.
The 10 teams need to fill up 77 slots with a cumulative purse of Rs 237.55 crore and among them, Mumbai Indians (Rs 2.75 crore) will hardly have any role to play except picking a few uncapped players at their base price.
Green, along with out-of-favour India all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer and English dasher Liam Livingstone, is likely to enjoy a handsome payday. Kolkata Knight Riders, with a purse of 64.30 crore and an eye on rebuilding the outfit with 13 slots to fill, can only be challenged by Chennai Super Kings, who enter the mini-auction with a purse of Rs 43.40 crore.
The mini-auction is always more intriguing than the mega auction as franchises come with specific choices and are always ready to go the distance to procure the services of players with distinct skill-sets. Pace bowling all-rounders always come at a premium and therefore, the troika of Green, Venkatesh Iyer and West Indies' Jason Holder, all coming at the highest base price of Rs 2 crore (USD 220,000), are set to headline the bidding war.
If one looks at their IPL stats, Green, especially, has middling numbers – 704 runs and 16 wickets in the 29 matches – but the mini-auction is a more demand-driven activity and an Australian all-format regular is certain to get traction.
When it comes to Venkatesh, everyone except KKR CEO Venky Mysore believed that an auction bid of Rs 23.75 crore was way too high and the player had his worst season trying to justify the price. Having also released Andre Russell, who is the team's new "Power Coach", KKR are in need of at least two good top order batters and one all-rounder.
Also read: IPL auction on Dec 16 to feature 350 players
The third of three pace-bowling all-rounders, Holder may be a low key name, but he is equally adept at using the long handle and bowl those heavy balls, making him useful in a smaller auction with lesser options.
There is buzz that Green might surpass countryman Mitchell Starc (Rs 24.75 crore) to become the overseas player with the highest price tag at an IPL auction but there would still remain a catch. Even if Green's bid goes northwards of Rs 25 crore, his salary for the season would still be Rs 18 crore.
The bid amount and players' salary would be mutually exclusive with the bid amount being deducted from the team's annual player purse. The reason being IPL's "maximum-fee" rule which states that a foreign player's maximum fee at a mini-auction will be the lower value between the highest retention slab (Rs 18 crore) and the highest price at the previous mega auction (Rs 27 crore for Rishabh Pant in 2025).
In case of Venkatesh, it will be interesting if his bid value goes over and above Rs 10 crore (USD 1.1 million), which is a fair deal given his skill-set and capabilities. England swashbuckler Liam Livingstone, who can also bowl handy spin is another player who can hit the million-dollar mark along with Quinton de Kock.
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