“His buy made a huge difference to their auction strategy” - Mike Hesson reckons Cameron Green deal hurt RCB at IPL 2024 auction 

Mike Hesson, former Director of Cricket at Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), has opined that the franchise’s decision to purchase Cameron Green from Mumbai Indians for ₹17.50 crore severely impacted their IPL 2024 auction strategy.

Amid much confusion over Hardik Pandya’s move back to Mumbai Indians from Gujarat Titans (GT), RCB ended up procuring the services of Australian all-rounder Green from MI for a whopping amount in an all-clash trade deal.

Speaking to cricket.com, Hesson said that the move to purchase Green for ₹17.50 crore meant that RCB's auction plans went for a toss.

“We’ve been in auctions where we have bullied other teams. We were able to get ourselves into that position through releasing players. But I thought after the retention list, RCB were in a really strong position. And then they spent ₹17 crore on Cam Green. Cam Green is a fine player, but his buy made a huge difference to their auction strategy,” the 49-year-old commented.

Hesson also disagreed with Bangalore’s strategy of bidding for Pat Cummins for up to ₹20.25 crore. The Australian Test and ODI skipper was eventually purchased by Sunrisers Hyderabad for ₹20.50 crore.

According to the Kiwi, RCB showed their hands too much with the Cummins move, but added that it was again the result of having spent ₹17.50 crore on Green.

“I never would have bid for Pat Cummins to that level (INR 20.25 crore). Never. You basically show your hand that that’s as far as you can go. So you have another two or three teams that know that ‘that’s all that RCB have’. The other teams will then forego a lot of other options to save more than 23 crore in order to outbid RCB,” Hesson explained.

“So I think RCB showed their hands probably too much with the Pat Cummins move. But I can understand why they did it. Because they didn’t want to end up with nobody. That’s the issue when you buy Cameron Green for ₹17 crore," he added.

Green played 16 matches for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2023, scoring 452 runs at an average of 50.22 and a strike rate of 160.28, with one hundred and two fifties. He also picked up six wickets with his medium pace.

---

List of players purchased by RCB at IPL 2024 auction

RCB had a purse of ₹23.25 crore for the IPL 2024 auction and spent ₹20.40 crore to purchase six players. Below is the list of players bought by the franchise at the auction.

Alzarri Joseph (₹11.50 crore)

Yash Dayal (₹5 crore)

Lockie Ferguson (₹2 crore)

Tom Curran (₹1.50 crore)

Swapnil Singh (₹20 lakh)

Saurav Chauhan (₹20 lakh)