Black Caps bowlers earn big money at IPL auction

Trent Boult and Lockie Ferguson have become New Zealand cricket's latest million-dollar men, being snapped up in the Indian Premier League mega auction.

Boult was the solitary Kiwi in the marquee group that kicked off the auction and was drawn as the fifth player to attract bids from the 10 IPL franchises.

After a bidding war between the Rajasthan Royals, the Royal Challengers Bangalore and Boult's former side the Mumbai Indians, the Black Caps bowler was sold to the Royals for 8 crore (NZ$1.6m).

A few hours later, he was then usurped as New Zealand's biggest earner, with Ferguson being sold for 10 crore ($2m).

The Kiwi speedster is amongst the best T20 bowlers when fit and firing and was the subject of a bidding war, with the Delhi Capitals and Gujarat Titans locked in a battle for the 30-year-old.

Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Lucknow Super Giants popped in as well to raise his price, but the Titans, a new team in the competition, won the bidding for 10 crore as Ferguson became a multi-millionaire.

That price was still short of the whopping $2.85m the Royal Challengers Bangalore paid last year to secure the services of Kyle Jamieson, the Black Caps bowler who opted against entering this year's auction so he could instead rest during April and May.

Indian batsman Shreyas Iyer led the bidding in the opening section, being sold to Kolkata Knight Riders for $2.45m, before countryman Ishan Kishan hit the $3m mark, picked up by Mumbai.

Twenty-two more New Zealanders put forward their names in the auction, which is set to run for two days, with Boult and Ferguson likely to have scored the biggest payday.

Boult - who will miss next week's first test against South Africa as he awaits the birth of his third child - was always likely to be hot property in the auction. The seamer took 13 wickets in 14 matches for Mumbai last season, recording an economy rate of 8.4.

He also played a key role in helping the Indians claim the 2020 IPL title, earning man of the match in the final and winning player of the season after taking 25 wickets.

Boult's first season in the competition was in 2015, having been purchased by Sunrisers Hyderabad for $600,000, and he has since also played for the Knight Riders and Capitals before being traded to Mumbai before the 2020 campaign.

Ferguson, meanwhile, has a bowling average of 15.4 and an economy rate of 7.1 in 15 Twenty20 internationals, and after a slow start to his IPL career has taken 19 wickets in his last two seasons at an average of 19.6 and economy of 7.5.

This is the IPL's first mega auction since 2018, with teams retaining only two or three players and releasing the rest into a bidding pool. Black Caps captain Kane Williamson was retained by Sunrisers for $2.78m.