When Andrew Symonds wanted to skip IPL because of Harbhajan Singh 

Former Kings XI Punjab CEO Neil Maxwell disclosed a lesser-known incident from the inaugural edition of the IPL, where he had to convince the Australian cricket team to play in the league. Maxwell revealed that it was especially challenging to get Andrew Symonds on board because of his infamous spat with Harbhajan Singh.

During his appearance on The Top Order Podcast, Neil narrated the entire story of how he convinced the Aussies to choose the Indian Premier League over the rebel Indian Cricket League. Former IPL Chairman and Commissioner Lalit Modi had assigned him the job of ensuring that the players from Australia and New Zealand do not play in the ICL.

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I remember trying to convince Andrew Symonds: Neil Maxwell

Andrew Symonds and Harbhajan Singh later played for the same IPL team

Neil Maxwell mentioned that Lalit Modi wanted Andrew Symonds in the IPL at any cost. He said:

"Lalit Modi asked me to convince the Australian players and the New Zealand players that they needed to come to the IPL, and not go to the ICL or, in Andrew Symonds' case, not go at all. He didn't want to go at all, because he had that blowout with Harbhajan."

He then recalled how he negotiated the monetary aspects with the Aussies, giving them almost the same amount of money to play for six weeks as they earned through their yearly contracts.

"I remember we're putting contracts in front of them, and there was going to be a minimum amount, they were going to this thing called the auction. So Andrew Symonds was going to get 200,000 USD minimum [$US 250,000]. And that was about an Australian Cricket contract [for a whole year] – he was on about 300, let's say," he continued.

The Australian all-rounder agreed, and 48 hours later, he became the most expensive overseas pick in the IPL Auction.

"Anyway, he reluctantly agreed, and 48 hours later, he had 1.2 million [$1.35m] a year for three years as a contract. You talk about transformation, that was transformation as they introduced the auction," Maxwell concluded.