Mitchell Johnson will cop a $A950,000 pay cut at this year’s Indian Premier League, as Australia’s cricket stocks were largely ignored at the annual auction.
After Englishman Ben Stokes recorded the highest price in IPL history for an overseas player at $A2.82 million, Johnson was unable to attract anywhere near the same attention.
However at least he was bought in the first round, with the likes of Test spinner Nathan Lyon, Brad Haddin and Nic Maddinson all unsold.
Johnson, who retired from international cricket in the 2015-16 summer, starred at the end of the BBL season for Perth including taking figures of 3-3 from four overs in their semi-final win over the Melbourne Stars.
However that has seemingly done little to impress Indian franchises, with the 35-year-old’s wage slashed from the $A1.34 he was re-signed for last year.
Fellow Australian quick Pat Cummins also failed to reach the million-dollar mark, sold to the Delhi Daredevils for $A875,000 – albeit double the amount he picked up in the 2014 auction.
They were the only two Australians to be bought in the opening hours of the auction, with 13 others failing to land a deal.
Those players now become available later in the auction, hoping to join the 16 Australians who had previously retained IPL contracts before the auction.
The BBL’s leading run-scorer, Ben Dunk, and top wicket-taker, Sean Abbott, each went unsold at reserves of around $A58,000, as did newly selected Australian squad members Michael Klinger, Billy Stanlake and Mitchell Swepson.
Western Australian quick Nathan Coulter-Nile and veteran spinner Brad Hogg were also passed up after teams failed to meet their $A195,000 and $A97,000 reserves respectively.
There was no such shortage of funds for English duo Stokes and Tymal Mills though.
Allrounder Stokes’ winning bid from the Pune Supergiants was also the second-highest in the auction’s 10-year history for all players, falling short of Yuvraj Singh’s $A3.31 million last year.
Such is the value of Stokes’ signature, his wage will be double that of the salary cap for each of last summer’s eight BBL teams.
Sussex’s left-arm paceman Mills – a 24-year-old who has only played four T20 internationals for England – attracted a winning bid of $A2.33 million from Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Meanwhile 18-year-old Afghan legspinner Rashid Khan was the shock early buy, purchased for $778,000 by the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
HOW THE AUSSIES HAVE FARED AT IPL AUCTION
Pat Cummins – $875,000 to Delhi Daredevils
Mitch Johnson – $389,000 to Mumbai Indians
Nathan Lyon, Sean Abbott, Ben Dunk, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Brad Hogg, Mitchell Swepson, Michael Klinger, Nic Maddinson, Billy Stanlake, Ben Laughlin, Fawad Ahmed, Michael Beer – all unsold.
*All unsold players can be purchased in a second round later in the auction.
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