At the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 auction in Kochi on Friday, England all-rounder Sam Curran was purchased by Punjab Kings (PBKS) for a record-breaking sum of Rs 18.5 crore, making him the most expensive player in the history of the IPL, surpassing former South Africa international Chris Morris.
During the bidding process, both Mumbai Indians (MI) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) initially expressed interest in acquiring the services of Curran, who had a base price of Rs 2 crore. As the price rose to Rs 7 crore, Rajasthan Royals (RR) also entered the bidding. RCB eventually dropped out, leaving MI and RR in a competitive bidding war. Chennai Super Kings (CSK), PBKS and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) also entered the bidding before Punjab ultimately bought Curran. The left-hander last month won the ‘Player of the Tournament’ award at the T20 World Cup in Australia, where he took 13 wickets and earned the ‘Player of the Match’ award for his performance in the final against Pakistan.
“Very happy to have him on board, he has a lot of skills with both bat and ball. We had two or three all-rounders in mind, Sam might be lucky he came up first,” the Punjab head coach Trevor Bayliss was quoted as saying to the broadcasters.
Here’s how Twitter reacted:
Record Alert 🚨
Sam Curran 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙚𝙧 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙞𝙣 𝙄𝙋𝙇!
He goes BIG 🤯- INR 18.50 Crore & will now play for Punjab Kings 👏 👏#TATAIPLAuction | @TataCompanies pic.twitter.com/VlKRCcwv05
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) December 23, 2022
Sam Curran after the IPL bidding: pic.twitter.com/JTH1uuoUqP
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) December 23, 2022
BREAKING: Sam Curran becomes most expensive player in IPL auction history… £1.84 million.
Merry Christmas @CurranSM !🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/wcjwwPnQDl— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) December 23, 2022
The dynamics of small auctions have worked spectacularly for #SamCurran. Wish him well with that price tag.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) December 23, 2022
Record broken, Raining currencies in Sam Curran’s garden..deservedly so.. #IPLAuction
— S.Badrinath (@s_badrinath) December 23, 2022
Tough luck, well played! Go well, Sam! pic.twitter.com/VVBdQQM3a3
— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) December 23, 2022
Left is right #SamCurran
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) December 23, 2022
Sam Curran right now!! 🤑🤑🤑#IPL2023 #IPLAuctions pic.twitter.com/cve75P1dAr
— Alexandra Hartley (@AlexHartley93) December 23, 2022
18.50 Cr for Sam Curran @PunjabKingsIPL pic.twitter.com/DbccMmNE2R
— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) December 23, 2022
SAM-SATIONAL BUY! ❤️#SherSquad, run out of adjectives for Curran in the comments. 👇🥳#IPL2023 #SaddaPunjab #PunjabKings #SamCurran pic.twitter.com/oxJrE6AZwx
— Punjab Kings (@PunjabKingsIPL) December 23, 2022
Sam Curran becomes the most expensive player in IPL history at £1.95million 🤯
Merry Christmas 🎄 pic.twitter.com/3AebhK0br3
— England's Barmy Army 🏴🎺 (@TheBarmyArmy) December 23, 2022