IPL History: Looking back at how the first-ever player auction unfolded

The Indian Premier League has come a long way ever since the league's inception back in 2008. When the initial sketch of the Indian Premier League was outlined, there would have been doubts surrounding the reach of the cash-rich league.

However, with 12 editions gone by, every new season of the IPL comes with much fervour, and the carnival of cricket that has endeavoured to revise the dogmas of the classical game attracts viewers and fans from all over the globe.

Certainly, the IPL has transformed the cricketing scenario globally with brand-new players establishing their credentials with some top-flight performances in the league.

The player auctions ahead of each season have proved to produce some exciting moments, with local players earning a fat sum of money, while some big names have also gone unsold in addition to the well-known names earning a big paycheck.

As we move closer to the player auction ahead of IPL 2020, we take a look back at the highlights from the first-ever IPL auction, which was held on two separate days, 20th February and 11th March 2008 in Mumbai.

Note: The franchises where allowed to sign Indian players who were not a part of the auction at any time, so they have not been included.

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Icon Players

Sourav Ganguly was signed as an Icon player by the Kolkata Knight Riders

The Icon player concept was introduced for the first and co-incidentally the last time in the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League. The Icon players list comprised of prominent Indian players, who joined the franchises which represented their home city.

This was done in order to increase the audience of the newly established league and to arouse the enthusiasm of the local fans. The icon players earned 15% more wages than the most expensive player in their respective teams, and a total of five franchises signed Icon players.

Mumbai Indians- Sachin Tendulkar

Royal Challengers Bangalore- Rahul Dravid

Kolkata Knight Riders- Sourav Ganguly

Kings XI Punjab- Yuvraj Singh

Delhi Daredevils- Virender Sehwag

Among these names, Virender Sehwag was a late addition to the list, based on the request of the Delhi franchise.

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Notable, VVS Laxman, who was also slated to be signed as an icon player rejected the offer from the Deccan Chargers as he reportedly wanted the side to sign multiple quality players than just splurge their money on his services.

Highlights from Day 1 and Day 2 of the auction

MS Dhoni was sold for the highest amount in the auction.

The total of 77 players including 48 foreign players went under the hammer on the opening day of the player auction, with the established players finding themselves in groups A, B, C and D, while the other players' services were auctioned under groups E, F, G and H.

First player sold

Shane Warne became the first player to be sold in the history of IPL when he was purchased by the Rajasthan Royals for his base price of ₹3.21 Crores ($450,000)

First Indian player sold

The first Indian player to be signed by a franchise in the history of IPL was Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who also happened to be the costliest player in the first edition of IPL when he was snapped by Chennai Super Kings for close to ₹10.73 crores ($1500,000), which was 3.75 times his base price set at ₹2.86 crores ($400,000).

Most expensive foreign player

Andrew Symonds was the most expensive foreign signing on the opening day, as he landed a contract worth ₹9.66 crores ($1350,000) with the Deccan Chargers, a 5.4 times increment on his base price of ₹1.78 crores ($250,000).

First buys

With a host of international stars available for the IPL franchises to sign, bidding wars ensued for most players, but there were quite a few landmark signings.

Deccan Chargers - Adam Gilchrist

Kolkata Knight Riders - Shoaib Akhtar

Kings XI Punjab - Mahela Jayawardene

Royal Challengers Bangalore - Anil Kumble

Delhi Daredevils - Glenn McGrath

Chennai Super Kings - M.S. Dhoni

Mumbai Indians - Harbhajan Singh

Rajasthan Royals - Shane Warne

Top buys by each franchise

Suresh Raina was one of the top buys of CSK

Chennai Super Kings

After purchasing MS Dhoni, CSK went big for Muttiah Muralitharan, Michael Hussey and Matthew Hayden. Joginder Sharma and Suresh Raina were the two big buys on the local players front.

Rajasthan Royals

Graeme Smith, Yusuf Pathan, Shane Watson and Mohammed Kaif where the Royals' top buys alongside Shane Warne. They also signed the services of Justin Langer, Morne Morkel and Munaf Patel.

Deccan Chargers

DC went big to sign the services of ace Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds, who emerged as the costliest buy from the 2008 player auction. Joining Symonds on the foreign players front were Adam Gilchrist, Shahid Afridi, Herschelle Gibbs, Chaminda Vaas and Scott Styris.

Some of the notable India internationals who joined the Deccan Chargers in the inaugural season were RP Singh, Rohit Sharma and VVS Laxman.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

RCB broke the bank to sign the services of South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis, who was their most expensive buy at $900,000. Joining Kallis on RCB's list of foreign players were prominent names such as Ross Taylor, Pakistan's Misbah-ul-Haq and Dale Steyn.

Experienced leg-spinner Anil Kumble was RCB's second-biggest buy, and he was joined by Zaheer Khan and Wasim Jaffer at RCB.

Kolkata Knight Riders

Kolkata's costliest signing was Indian fast bowler Ishant Sharma, who was roped in by KKR for a big sum of $950,000. Their other top recruits were attacking openers Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum and the Pakistan trio of Shoaib Akthar, Umar Gul and Mohammad Hafeez while the Indian contingent comprised of Ajit Agarkar and Murali Karthik.

Mumbai Indians

MI used up a major chunk of their purse to sign the services of Sri Lankan all-rounder Sanath Jayasuriya, who pocketed a contract worth $975,000. Prior to signing Jayasuriya, MI also spent $850,000 to land the services of Harbhajan Singh. Their other top buys were Robin Uthappa, Shaun Pollock and Lasith Malinga.

Kings XI Punjab

KXIP's most expensive buy was Indian left-arm all-rounder Irfan Pathan, who was set to partner Brett Lee and S Sreesanth in KXIP's bowling unit in the inaugural edition of the IPL. On the batting front, Sri Lankan duo of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena were two notable purchases.

Delhi Daredevils

The Delhi Daredevils' top buy was Indian opener Gautam Gambhir. They also went big for the Indian duo of Manoj Tiwary and Dinesh Karthik, while AB de Villiers and Tillakaratne Dilshan also earned big contracts.

U19 Draft

Virat Kohli was the top pick in the U19 draft

The U19 Draft consisted of the Indian players from the 2008 U19 Cricket World Cup, a tournament in which India emerged as champions under Virat Kohli's leadership.

The franchises where allotted numbers 1-8 randomly, and as per their numbers, the franchises were allowed to pick the youngsters from the draft. Delhi Daredevils made the first pick as they signed Pradeep Sangwan, while RCB drafted in Virat Kohli.

Deccan Chargers were the only team who opted to skip signing an U-19 player, while the Chennai Super Kings picked three players. Big names such as Manish Pandey, Ravindra Jadeja among others were picked by the teams.

Delhi Daredevils - Pradeep Sangwan

Chennai Super Kings - Abhinav Mukund, Napoleon Einstein, Viraj Kadbe

Kings XI Punjab - Tanmay Srivastava, Ajitesh Argal

Kolkata Knight Riders - Siddharth Kaul, Iqbal Abdulla

Mumbai Indians - Saurabh Tiwary, Manish Pandey

Rajasthan Royals - Taruwar Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja

Royal Challengers Bangalore - Virat Kohli, Shreevats Goswami