Steve Smith has gone unsold in the IPL auction after Cameron Green became the highest-priced overseas player in the T20 competition’s history. But a new rule means Green won’t receive about $1.2 million of his $4.17m price tag.
At Tuesday night’s player auction, Green was bought by the Kolkata Knight Riders for 252 million rupees (AU$4.17 million) after a bidding war for the all-rounder involving the Chennai Super Kings. The $4.17m price broke the previous record for the highest given to an overseas player – eclipsing the $4m figure given to Australian Test teammate Mitchell Starc last year when he was also bought by the Knight Riders.
But under a new rule brought in for this year’s auction, Green only gets to keep about $2.98m. The rest of the $1.19m will be paid by Kolkata to the Indian cricket board’s player welfare fund.
Cameron Green (L) won’t actually receive his full $4.17 million price tag, while Steve Smith (R) was among a number of Aussies that went unsold. Image: AAP
Why Cameron Green won’t receive $1.19 million of IPL money
The new rule was brought in because of concerns from the IPL franchises that overseas players were only registering for the ‘mini-auctions’ to take advantage of the fewer players on offer in them. It means there’s now a limit on how much overseas players can be paid, which is set at 18 Indian ‘crore’ – or $2.98m Australian.
The IPL said in a memo to teams last year: “Any overseas player’s auction fee at small auction will be lower than the highest retention price [of INR 18 crore] and the highest auction price at the big auction. In case the highest auction price at the big auction is INR 20 crore, then INR 18 crore will be the cap. If the highest auction price at big auction is INR 16 crore, then the cap will be INR 16 crore.”
Cameron Green in action for Delhi Capitals in the IPL in 2024. (Photo by IDREES MOHAMMED/AFP via Getty Images)
The new rule is not applicable to Indian players, with Rishabh Pant ($4.46m) and Shreyas Iyer ($4.42m) cashing in with huge deals on Tuesday night. Smith was among a number of Aussie players who went unsold, with the Test superstar failing to receive a single offer after none of the teams requested to bid on him.
KKR’s CEO Venky Mysore said of Green: “He adds lot to our team, especially with our new power coach Andre Russell, very nice to have a young all-rounder. Him having had IPL experience, we know what he does with bat and ball. Couldn’t be happier.”
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The 26-year-old Green has previously played for Mumbai Indians and ​Royal ​Challengers Bengaluru in the lucrative T20 comp, but ​missed the 2025 season ​due to back surgery. The all-rounder has averaged 41.6 with the bat in his IPL career at a strike rate of 153.7, while also taking 16 wickets at 41.5 and an economy rate of 9.07.
Five other Aussies were snapped up on Tuesday night, with fellow Test player Josh Inglis going to Lucknow Super Giants for $1.4 million. Ricky Ponting’s Punjab Kings added Ben Dwarshuis ($725,000) and Cooper Connolly ($330,000) to their cohort of Australian players, while Matt Short ($250,000) joined Chennai and Jack Edwards ($500,000) went to Hyderabad.
There’s a total of 16 Aussies set to take part in the 19th edition of the IPL, which begins on March 26. Big names like Starc, Pat Cummins and Travis Head were retained by their franchises and therefore didn’t take part in the auction. Joining Smith as unsold players missing out were Jake Fraser-McGurk, Spencer Johnson, Sean Abbott, Riley Meredith, Will Sutherland, Jhye Richardson, Daniel Sams, Ben McDermott, Beau Webster, Jason Behrendorff, Wes Agar and Billy Stanlake.
with AAP