IPL 2018: Most expensive players in each year of the tournament till now

A decade since its inception in the year 2008, the Indian premier League today is the annual highlight of the cricketing calendar. Cricket, especially Indian cricket, has never been the same since. It is a melting pot of different cultures with players from all around the world sharing the same dressing room keeping aside their rivalries for national colours.

The importance of the IPL can be gauged from the fact that the FTP (Future Tours Program) of the ICC is scheduled keeping a separate window for the IPL.

Every year an auction is held to determine which player is going to play for which franchise. Player wages are decided at this very auction and the highest paid players are paid handsome amounts of money for only two months of action. It has the potential to make cricketers the best paid athletes in the world if it keeps growing at the same rate.

This attracts talent from all over the world. Mega auctions are usually held after a period of 3 years. So who are the costliest players in the IPL auctions over the years?

Let us have a look.

2008 - Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Chennai Super Kings), $1.5 million (Approximately Rs. 6 crore)

MS Dhoni enjoys a cult following at Chennai.

The first edition of the IPL saw a few of the superstars going directly into their home teams as icon players and thus were not part of the auction. Just before the IPL auctions started Team Chennai had decided there would be no looking back. They would go for Mahendra Singh Dhoni, they agreed, at any cost.

After an intense bidding war with the Mumbai Indians, Chennai got their man for a whopping $1.5 million - an amount that defied all predictions.

It was a bid that stunned some of India's leading corporate names huddled around adjoining tables and set the tone for the huge amounts of money that would be splashed in the players' auction in the years to come.

2009 -Kevin Pietersen (Bangalore Royal Challengers) and Andrew Flintoff (Chennai Super Kings), $1.55 million (Approximately 7.75 crore)

Pietersen was the highest paid player in the second edition of the IPL.

The 2009 auction of the IPL was relatively a smaller one, with only seventeen players bought in the auction. Nevertheless big money was spent as two Englishmen - Pietersen and Flintoff attracted the highest bids from the teams. MS Dhoni was keen on roping in Engalnd's explosive all-rounder and Chennai Superkings did just that even though they had to pay more for Flintoff than they did for Dhoni a year earlier.

Bangalore didn't even enter the fray for Flintoff and straightaway started bidding for Pietersen once his name was called. The Rajasthan Royals tried to keep pace, but ultimately Vijay Mallya had his man.

2010 - Shane Bond (Kolkata Knight Riders) and Kieron Pollard (Mumbai Indians), $750,000 (Approximately 3.5 crore)

Pollard has been a star for the Mumbai Indians.

The 2010 auction was again a small one with only 11 players getting sold in this auction. The highest prices in the auction were bagged by Shane Bond and Kieron Pollard respectively. The bid for both of these players went into a tie-breaker.

In the tiebreakers, Kolkata Knight Riders bid $1,300,000 for Shane Bond and Mumbai Indians bid $2,750,000 for Kieron Pollard. The players' take was capped at $750,000 each by the IPL auction rules, with the rest going to IPL kitty.

2011 - Gautam Gambhir (Kolkata Knight Riders), $2.4 million (Approximately 10.8 crore)

Gambhir led KKR to two IPL titles.

KKR had a forgettable three seasons in the IPL and going into the 2011 auction they were determined to revamp their team. They had identified Gambhir as the ideal captain and went all out for him in the auction. They finally bagged him for a record $2.4 million, making him the costliest player in the auction. Gambhir lived up to the expectations as he led the Knight Riders to two league titles over the next six years.

2012 - Ravindra Jadeja (Chennai Super Kings), $2 million (Approximately 9.72 crore)

Jadeja was an integral part of the CSK line-up.

Jadeja, with his all round cricketing skills - his canny left arm off spin, a stunning fielder with a bullet throw and his ability to hit the ball out of the park at the back end of the innings made him a very popular pick in the 2012 auction.

As expected teams scrambled to bid for him as soon as his name was announced. Chennai Super Kings and Deccan Chargers were tied after both bid USD 2 million for the all-rounder and eventually Chennai bagged him via the tie-breaker making him the costliest player of the auction.

2013 - Glenn Maxwell (Mumbai Indians), $1 million (Approximately 5.5 crore)

Maxwell went for huge money in the 2013 IPL auction.

Glenn Maxwell had talked himself up as Australia's X-factor in the World Twenty20 in 2012 and all the franchises seemed to agree with him. He was the highest paid player in the auction as he was picked up for a million dollars by the Mumbai Indians.

However, games were tough to come by for him as Mumbai already had a settled line-up. He finally moved to Punjab, where he found more game time and more success.

2014 - Yuvraj Singh (Bangalore Royal Challengers), Rs 14 crore

Yuvi made a move to RCB from Pune.

With just about 1500 runs in 5 seasons of the IPL India's superstar Yuvraj Singh had not exactly set the stage on fire in the IPL. He had not been having the best of seasons also as he had also been left out of India's Asia cup squad in 2014.

However, all the franchises felt Yuvi still had a lot to offer and would turn out to be a key player in the IPL. Before the 2014 auctions RCB captain Virat Kohli had openly expressed his desire to get Yuvi into his team. RCB finally had their man after an intense round of bidding for a sum of 14 crore.

2015 - Yuvraj Singh (Delhi Daredevils), 16 crore

Yuvraj Sngh in action for Delhi.

After a forgettable IPL 2014, Yuvraj Singh was released by the Bangalore franchise. With him being in and out of the Indian team, nobody thought that he would fetch a big bid in the auction. However, what happened at the auction was a total surprise.

Initially there was a four way bidding war for his services, but once the price reached 7 crore RR and KXIP quit, leaving DD and RCB in the fray. Bangalore and Delhi then went head to head for him, with finally Delhi managing to secure his services for 16 crore - 8 times his base price.

2016 - Shane Watson (Bangalore Royal Challengers), 9.5 crore

Shane Watson in action for RCB.

Bangalore has made it a habit of spending huge on a marquee player in the auction and they did the same in the 2016 auction as well. Big burly all-rounder Shane Watson from Australia was always likely to attract big bids and it was the Bangalore franchise that snapped him up for 9.5 crore.

With him in their team, Bangalore boasted of a batting line-up which consisted of Kohli, Gayle, De Villiers and Watson - capable of destroying any bowling attack.

2017 - Ben Stokes (Rising Pune Supergiants), 14.5 crore

Ben Stokes was the best player for Pune in IPL 2017.

Ben Stokes ticks all the boxes for being considered a T20 superstar - a powerful hitter, a medium pace bowler with a number of variations and an athletic fielder. So, it was not a surprise as he emerged as the costliest player in the 2017 auction after being bought by the Pune franchise for 14.5 crore. He proved his worth as he emerged as Pune's most valuable player guiding them into the playoffs for the first time.

2018 - Ben Stokes ( Rajasthan Royals), 12.5 crore

As expected, Ben Stokes remained the costliest player in this year's auction too, as he was snapped up the usually miserly Rajasthan Royals for a sum of 12.5 crore. It remains to be seen how he performs for his new franchise after impressing in the previous edition.