It rained money in the IPL 2022 Mega Auction which was a 2-day long affair and ended on 13th February in Bengaluru. However, things got pretty tense when the regular auctioneer Hugh Edmeads fell on stage during the event on the first day. Fortunately, the auctioneer recovered but still was not in shape to resume the proceedings. Edmeads was then replaced by Charu Sharma, who is a known name in the cricket fraternity and is a seasoned campaigner when it comes to presenting the sport.
Charu Sharma commits a blunder during Khaleel Ahmed’s bid
As many as 200 players were sold in the auction and Charu Sharma did a brilliant job in handling all the proceedings. While Charu Sharma executed the event with perfection for almost the entirety of the auction, he committed a blunder on Day 2 when he got confused and sold the left-arm pacer, Khaleel Ahmed to Delhi Capitals instead of Mumbai Indians who had the highest bid for the cricketer.
Khaleel represented Sunrisers Hyderabad in the last season of the Indian Premier League, but was not retained by the franchise. Khaleel’s bid started with his base price of INR 50 lacs, but it soon escalated to crores when Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals got into a bidding war taking the base price of INR 50 lacs to a whopping INR 5 crore.
The Mumbai franchise then raised the bid to INR 5.25 crore. The Delhi camp got into consideration and the Delhi Capitals’ co-owner raised the paddle for INR 5.50 crore, but quickly retreated.
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This confused the auctioneer Charu Sharma greatly who thought that the Delhi Capitals have the highest bid of 5.25 crore, while it was the Mumbai Indians with the highest bid. He sold the left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed to Delhi Capitals who had only bid for INR 5 crore, but got the bowler for INR 5.25 crore. On the other hand, Mumbai Indians had pulled out of the bid after the confusion ensued.
