The initial seasons of the IPL were without English players as the England Cricket Board denied NOC to their players. It is safe to say that Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen were the first set of English players to participate in the IPL, and it opened doors for the other players as well.
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The IPL 2009 auction created a lot of controversies as well, it was said that then IPL commissioner Lalit Modi scripted Flintoff’s move to Chennai Super Kings. A lot of controversies were made around it as well, but the CSK owner said that there was no truth in the stories.
Flintoff was one of the prominent names of English cricket as he was an asset with both bat and the ball. When he gave his name in the auction, it was certain that he will get a good amount in the auction.
Andrew Flintoff IPL money
The duo of Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff hit jackpots in the IPL 2009 auction. This was the first IPL auction for the English pair, and they got bids of $1.55 M (approx INR 7.55 crore) each. Pietersen was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore and Flintoff was bought by Chennai Super Kings.
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With this bid, both of them became the highest-paid IPL players of that time. MS Dhoni was the most expensive player after the IPL 2008 auction, but the English duo got approx INR 1.35 crores more than Dhoni. Although, the gamble on Flintoff did not turn out well for Chennai Super Kings as he got injured after playing just three games for the franchise.
The stature of IPL has increased a lot over the last year as INR 7.55 crore is not a big amount anymore. Recently, English all-rounder Sam Curran was bought by Punjab Kings for a price of INR 18.5 crores, which is the highest-ever bid in the history of the IPL auction.
