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One of the most anticipated days on the calendar for a professional cricketer has arrived, with a number of Australian stars and rookies set to find out if they will get an early Christmas present at this year’s Indian Premier League auction in Dubai.
More than 20 Australians have entered this year’s “mini” auction, with Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Travis Head and Jhye Richardson all expected to fetch handsome paydays.
There are 333 players in the auction – 214 of whom are Indian – but only 77 slots are up for grabs. For the 21 Australians hoping to pick up a contract, only 30 contracts are available for overseas players.
All 10 IPL teams have retained the players they wanted to keep and traded others, meaning there are only limited positions to fill.
While there will be plenty of attention on big-name players fresh off the ODI World Cup, there is also no shortage of intrigue around a handful of lesser-known Australians, such as New South Welshman William Salzmann and young gun Jake Fraser-McGurk who have a chance of cashing in when the paddles begin waving at 6.30pm AEDT.
Salzmann is a fast bowling all-rounder who plays his club cricket at Sydney University. He hasn’t even played a professional T20 match but has impressed in three List A appearances, with eight wickets at an average of 14.12.
Will Salzmann represented Australia at the under-19 World Cup in the West Indies early last year.Credit: Getty
The 20-year-old has entered the auction with a base price of INR 20 lakh ($36,000) but could be viewed by one of the franchises as a value buy.
The only other Australian in tonight’s auction without an international match to his name is Fraser-McGurk, whose 29-ball century in the Marsh One-Day Cup for South Australia in October did his chances of being picked up no harm.
The remarkable innings at Karen Rolton Oval in Adelaide was the fastest white ball hundred ever scored.
Fraser-McGurk also clubbed 48 off 24 balls for the Renegades in their loss to the Sydney Sixers earlier this year and has been touted as one of the country’s most exciting and damaging young cricketers.
Wes Agar, Ben Cutting, Matt Short, Ben Dwarshuis, Spencer Johnson and Riley Meredith are also at the lower end of the Australian reserve prices, entering the auction with reserve prices of INR 50 lakh each ($89,000).
Stars including David Warner, Mitch Marsh, Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis have already been retained by their franchises, so won’t feature in the auction.
Starc has not played an IPL match for eight years and is expected to fetch a big contract, having prioritised red ball cricket of late. The left-arm paceman entered the 2018 auction but did not play that year due to injury.
Cummins picked up a huge payday in 2020 when he was snapped up by the Kolkata Knight Riders for $3.16 million.
Six of the 11 players who featured in Australia’s World Cup-winning team will go under the hammer on Tuesday evening.
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