IPL big bucks for Cameron Green, greenhorns

Australian allrounder Cameron Green was expected to fetch the highest price at the IPL mini auction on Tuesday, and he did, going for Rs 25.2 crore to Kolkata Knight Riders. That made him the third-most expensive player ever sold at an IPL auction, and the most expensive overseas player ever.

But Green wasn’t the biggest story to come out of the auction, held at Abu Dhabi.

Lord Byron, the 19th century English poet, wrote: “I awoke one morning and found myself famous.” Prashant Veer, Kartik Sharma, Auqib Nabi and a bunch of other cricketers found themselves in a similar serendipitous state on Tuesday. Before the bidding began, they were journeymen making a modest living in domestic cricket and local T20 leagues.

Now they are IPL’s latest million-dollar babies. The 2026 auction will be remembered as the one where the uncapped, even the unheard, stole the show.Modest returns for Rajasthan pacer Ashok SharmaThe huge sums fetched by uncapped players represent a collective leap of faith by the IPL franchises. Prashant Veer has played just 9 domestic T20 games; Kartik Sharma only 12.

Amethi-born Veer, a 20-year-old left-arm spinner-cum-big hitter in the mould of Ravindra Jadeja, was snapped up by Chennai Super Kings for a record Rs 14.2 crore.

The highest-ever sum for an uncapped player was equalled by Kartik Sharma, a teenage gloveman from Rajasthan with a penchant for six hitting. He will play for CSK, a team generally conservative in its bidding and often reliant on aging maestros. Unlike the two, Auqib Nabi, a 29-year old medium pacer and handy batter from the restive Baramulla district of Kashmir, has done the hard miles in domestic cricket. The English teacher’s son, who modelled his action on South Africa’s Dale Steyn, was snapped up by Delhi Capitals for Rs 8.4 crore. Several other uncapped young guns also raked in the moolah: left-arm pacer Mangesh Yadav (RCB, Rs 5.2 crore), keeper-hitter Tejasvi Dahiya (KKR, Rs 3 crore), keeper-hitter Mukul Choudhary (LSG, Rs 2.6 crore) and shotmaker Akshat Raghuvanshi (LSG, Rs 2.2 crore), to name just four. The day had other surprises too. Ashok Sharma, whose raw pace had batters in disarray this season and spotters calling attention, went for an unexpectedly modest Rs 90 lakh to Gujarat Titans.