“Can’t Imagine IPL Auction Without You”: Fans Shower Love On Richard Madley, First IPL Auctioneer

With only a handful of hours remaining before the commencement of Indian Premier League 2024 auction, fans can’t help but take refuge in fond memories of the very first auction and its auctioneer – Richard Madley. The Englishman, who has since moved on to other things in life, has still made it a consistent routine to send warm regards to his fellow successors.

Having conducted the bidding process for 11 seasons between 2008-2018, Madley is an iconic name, face and voice of IPL auctions. However, he has harbored only love and showered praises on Hugh Edmeades, his successor, and Mallika Sagar, slated to be the first female auctioneer in IPL history.

Madley took to popular social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to inform Sagar how honorable it was to be the one to conduct such an auction in the inaugural season. Fans, in response, showered nothing but love on him.

The common underlying message among all his fans was “Missing you”. It’s hard to shake off that image of being associated with a name and brand as prestigious as the cash-rich IPL.

The 67-year-old, who seemed to have all the time in the world for his fans, responded to almost everyone with equal love, kindness and humility. Unlike some celebrities, none of his messages seemed out of order or anything remotely snarky or salty.

One fan in particular, who goes by the name “Kohlian”, poured his heart out on how much he misses Madley’s iconic manner of saying “Sold” with the sound of the gavel to follow. It’s been six years, including 2024, since he last auctioned but remembering his style still gives this fan “goosebumps”.

Why Does Richard Madley Not Conduct IPL Auctions Now?

In search of a “young and Indian” auctioneer in a bid to change the auction dynamics, BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) opted to move on from Richard Madley in 2018. However, the richest cricket board zeroing in on another senior English auctioneer in Edmeades had left Madley “down and deflated” especially after being informed of the development via an email according to India Today.

Madley, however, doesn’t carry grudges or heavy heart. As is evident from his online presence, he often reminisces about his time spent during these auctions and all the happy memories he collected on the back of getting along well with the owners.

As per his pinned tweet, his career highlight was selling the legendary Mahendra Singh Dhoni to Chennai Super Kings for $1.5 million in the inaugural auction of what has turned out to be the biggest T20 tournament in the world. CSK captain till date, Dhoni had even signed an autograph for Madley’s son, Harry.

Post IPL snub, Madley now does the same, i.e., works in the capacity of an auctioneer in SA20. Occasionally, he also provides expert opinion on BBC game show Bargain Hunt. However, an 11-year long IPL association will always remain the highlight of a decorated career as expressed by him in one of his tweets.