England all-rounder Ben Stokes was sold to Rising Pune Supergiants for a whopping Rs 14.50 crores during the 2017 Indian Premier League (IPL) Auction at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Bengaluru on Monday.
The 25-year-old entered the auction at the maximum base price of Rs. 2 crore and a hectic bidding ensued between Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Delhi Daredevils and Rising Pune Supergiants before he was finally sold.
As a result, Stokes also became the most expensive overseas player surpassing fellow England players Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen who had drawn top money in 2009.
Meanwhile, Indian all-rounder Pawan Negi, who earlier represented the now suspended franchise Chennai Super Kings, and having later on represented Delhi Daredevils, started the bids at Rs. 30 lakh and was eventually sold to RCB for Rs. 1 crore.
Delhi Daredevils got hands on Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathews for Rs. 2 crore and South Africa's Kagiso Rabada for Rs 5 crore.
Kings XI Punjab were also successful in picking up Eoin Morgan of England at a base price of Rs. 2 crore.
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Indian trio of Irfan Pathan, Saurabh Tiwari and Faiz Fazal, New Zealand's Martin Guptill and Ross Taylor, England's Jason Roy and Alex Hales were all remained unsold.
A total of 351 players are up for grabs in the auction out of an original pool of 799. Of these, 226 are Indian players and 122 are players with international caps. Six players are from Associate ICC nations.
This is the last auction of the 10-year cycle after which all players are set to go back into the auction pool.