Picture Credit: Hotstar
The IPL 2022 mega auctions were full of action, drama and entertainment. However, it looks like there was a bit of controversy as well, something which seemed to have gone unnoticed by everyone during the event. During the bidding war between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals for India's left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed, a bizarre sequence of events unfolded in Bengaluru.
Both the franchises bid quite aggressively to secure the services of Ahmed, who has 32 wickets in 24 IPL appearances. However, there was one moment which was captured that showed DC owner Kiran Kumar Grandhi playing around with MI. “I’m gonna f*** around till 5," he seemed to have told his team at the table, presumably suggesting that he will take the price upto Rs 5 crore before backing out.
But things did not go according to the plan for Delhi Capitals. Instead, there was a blunder made by stand-in auctioneer Charu Sharma which led to their downfall. After DC had made their bid of Rs 5 crore, MI responded by raising the paddle taking the bid amount to Rs 5.25 crore.
There was a brief stoppage and this is when the confusion started. After some discussion, DC owner raised the paddle for next bid but took it down immediately with a smile, suggesting that he was not bidding anymore. However, amid all this, it seemed to have confused auctioneer Charu Sharma as well and the next announcement he made was that DC have the current bid for Khaleel at Rs 5.25 crore.
MI did not make any further bids and despite them making the last bid, the player was sold to Delhi Capitals at the same amount, which left the viewers baffled.
Watch the video here:
Surprisingly, no one in the auction room seemed to have questioned the whole sequence of events which makes it look even more confusing as to what actually happened. The video of the incident has now gone viral on internet and it will be interesting to see what everyone has to say now about the same.