IPL: Seven West Aussies to feature in 2024 season after auction concludes

When it comes to cricket, we’ve known West is best for a while now - and it seems Indian Premier League franchises are catching on.

A whopping seven West Aussies will feature in the lucrative Twenty20 competition, reflecting WA cricket’s dominance across several years.

WA products represented almost half of the 16 Aussies whose names were called out at Monday’s auction or who were retained from last season, with star allrounder Cam Green leading the way money-wise as he heading to Royal Challengers Bangalore for the handsome sum of $3.15m.

Lucknow Super Giants will have a strong WA flavour, with new coach Justin Langer having both Marcus Stoinis ($1.7m) and Ashton Turner ($178,000) at his disposal.

The signing marks a return to the IPL for Turner for the first time since his stint with Rajasthan in 2019 and is reward for a superb few seasons with the bat and at the helm for the Perth Scorchers in the Big Bash League.

Mitch Marsh ($1.2m) returns to Delhi Capitals, alongside Jhye Richardson ($890,000), while Tim David ($1.53m) and Jason Behrendorff ($135,000) will play their trade for Mumbai.

It came as newly-minted IPL millionaire Mitchell Starc conceded it could be an “interesting time” for the Australian fast bowling crew in the gym when they reassemble after he and captain Pat Cummins picked up more than $8m in new contracts in a record-setting auction.

But the third man in their all-conquering trio, Josh Hazlewood, who had informed teams he would be unavailable early in the tournament due to the impending birth of his first child, was left unsold on the shelf as Starc declared he was in a “fair bit of shock” after becoming the most expensive player in the T20 tournament’s history.

Starc was picked up for $4.43m by the Kolkata Knight Riders as he ended his eight-year absence from the tournament, with Cummins going to the Sunrisers Hyderabad for $3.67m.

They weren’t the only bowlers given seven-figure deals, with rookie Australian quick Spencer Johnson also picked up for a mammoth $1.78m by the Gujarat Titans.

Starc said he was getting updates from his wife, Australia captain Alyssa Healy, who is in India for her own series, and found it hard to believe he was the subject of such an intense bidding war.

“I’m not sure any words would do it justice, really,” Starc told Star TV.

“Alyssa was over there with the Australian team at the minute, so her coverage was slightly ahead of mine here in Australia. So she sort of saw the numbers before I did, so I was getting the updates through her. But, yeah, a fair bit of shock, and certainly excitement with how it was all unfolding. But nothing that I could’ve ever imagined.

“The team chat has been going nuts. The are all saying it’s our shout, so we’ll just go about our business and get ready for the next Test match. But a few of our Australian teammates might be waiting for us to treat them.

“It could be an interesting conversation between the bowling group tomorrow and the gym.”

Starc has played only two seasons of the IPL - in 2014 and 2015 - and missed the 2018 season with injury before opting to return to the tournament this year, setting off a frenzy among his suitors.

“It’s been a long time since I played in IPL in 2014 and ’15 and have obviously played a fair bit of cricket since then,” he said.

“So that experience is there and a little bit of leadership if you like, in terms of the experience side of things in white-ball cricket that hopefully I can bring to bring to KKR as well and play my part there.”

Travis Head also returns to the IPL and will join Cummins at the Sunrisers on a $1.2m deal.

- with News Corp Australia