Dubai [UAE], December 19 : Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) CEO Venky Mysore on Tuesday said that Australian pacer Mitchell Starc was a preferred player for the side from a skill standpoint and added that his team failing in other bids worked in their favour as they had enough money to get the Aussie veteran.
Australian pacer Mitchell Starc became the most expensive player in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL). He was bought by the Kolkata Knight Riders for Rs 24.75 crore at the auction in Dubai on Tuesday.
Venky talked about how the IPL has changed over the years in terms of money offered to players and teams.
"Well, you know, I think my take on this is if you sort of look at it from the set of lenses of a price you pay for a player. And now it seems like wow, 24.75. I was telling someone that the salary cap of a team when IPL started in 2008 was 20 crores, the entire salary cap. So things have changed, right? But, you know, I think our view is, when the auction is over, all the 10 teams are going to walk out of the auction having spent 100 crores and each team decides to slice it differently. So what you've paid to somebody up down what not is a matter of perspective. Ultimately, we're all spending the same amount of money," said Venky as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.
The KKR CEO said that the environment is very dynamic while one plans the team from a retention standpoint with auction far away.
"When you plan your team, from a retention standpoint, with the auction so far away, you have no idea of who are the other players from other teams who are being released, trades happening, and all that. So it is a very dynamic environment. So you do not also go into the auction with a mindset... I mean, we had options. You have to have options, like like they do. We could have been in the same shoes answering saying, Sorry, we lost out to GT."
"And we have a plan. And so I think everybody comes with their own plans. We have been around long enough. I mean, I do not know this is my 14th auction. And so, you know, you win some, you lose some, and you just have to be prepared. So it was not like you came in with that mindset, but obviously, he was a preferred player from that skill set standpoint. It all sometimes works out. Initially, we were not successful in some of the bids. Maybe that worked in our favour, because we did end up having money to do this, otherwise, we might not have been able to do it. So we're just thankful that we were able to have him on our side," concluded Venky.
Starc has now left behind his skipper Pat Cummins, who was earlier the most expensive player in IPL history with Rs 20.50 crore and was sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad just few hours.
The pacer started an insane bidding war that lasted for minutes, with Mumbai Indians (MI) and Delhi Capitals (DC) locking horns first. Once they backed out, Gujarat Titans and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) went ahead with an even bigger bidding war, crossing the Rs 20.50 crore spent by SRH on Cummins. Eventually, GT backed out at Rs 24.75 crore and KKR got Starc for a record-breaking prize.
Starc made his return to the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction after years, having last played in 2015. He has taken 73 wickets in 58 T20Is and is a multi-time World Champion with Australia across all formats. With 647 international wickets in 262 matches, he is among the best fast bowlers of the modern era.
In his IPL career, Starc has 34 wickets to his name in 27 matches he played for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) from 2014-15.
Earlier, Cummins broke the roof as he became the costliest player in the history of the Indian Premier League when he was acquired by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for Rs 20.50 crore on Tuesday at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai.
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