IPL auction: Sam Curran and Jonny Bairstow sign lucrative deals but several English players go unsold

Curran won a lucrative contract but several of England's best white-ball players remained unsold

Sam Curran signed a lucrative deal to play in the IPL next year (Getty)

Sam Curran has signed for Indian Premier League side Kings XI Punjab in a deal worth around £800,000, while England teammate Jonny Bairstow has joined Sunrisers Hyderabad for £240,000 in the final round of bidding.

Kolkata Knight Riders signed English pair Joe Denly for £100,000 and Harry Gurney (£80,000), while Lancashire captain Liam Livingstone joined Rajasthan Royals for £80,000 for the 2019 tournament, which runs from late March to May.

Curran emerged as a sought-after all-rounder following his man of the series performance in England’s summer Test series victory against India, as well as his availability given his fringe-status in the international set-up. His skilful seam bowling and high batting strike rate make him an especially attractive asset to any of the sides. He said on Instagram: "What a year! Couldn't be more excited to join kxipofficial at the iplt20 in 2019."

But while Moeen Ali (Royal Challengers Bangalore), David Willey, Sam Bilings (both Chennai Super Kings), Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler (Rajasthan Royals) have been retained, there was only a handful of the 19 English qualified players available in the final lot that secured a deal.

England limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan was one of three England and Wales Cricket Board central contracted players overlooked in the final round of bidding – Chris Woakes, previously RCB, and Alex Hales, released by SRH – due to concerns over value.

In last year’s competition, Tom Curran, David Willey, Mark Wood and Liam Plunkett angered their counties by accepting late bids as replacements. Such was the dispute, the first-class counties called on the ECB to do more to prevent players being poached by the IPL and protect domestic red-ball cricket.

English players in the IPL

Sam Curran – Kings XI Punjab
Jonny Bairstow – Sunrisers Hyderabad
Sam Billings – Chennai Super Kings
David Willey – Chennai Super Kings
Harry Gurney – Kolkata Knight Riders
Joe Denly – Kolkata Knight Riders
Ben Stokes – Rajasthan Royals
Jos Buttler – Rajasthan Royals
Jofra Archer – Rajasthan Royals
Moeen Ali – Royal Challengers Bangalore

International boards receive payments from the IPL for their players, with a small portion filtering down to the clubs, and it is understood that the counties have called on the ECB to increase the amount of money they receive from it. As it stands individuals pay their counties one per cent of their annual salary for every day they are abroad during the first three weeks then 0.7 per cent for each day further.

To justify their place in the IPL to their counties, some English players have set a high minimum price, while others have inflated values that make them less financially appealing to IPL sides. Hence why players like Jason Roy, Alex Hales and Chris Woakes would fail to receive realistic bids.

It is unlikely that many England players will arrive late into this year’s competition given they will have to leave and report for World Cup duty at the end of May.

Elsewhere seamer Jaydev Unadkat (RR) and spinner Varun Chakravarthy (KXIP) both won contracts worth close to £1m, while West Indies all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite sealed a lucrative move to KKR and Mohit Sharma joins Chennai Super Kings.

Notable omissions included Sri Lanka’s Angelo Mathews, former New Zealand batsman Brendon McCullum, South Africans Dale Steyn, Hashim Amla and Morne Morkel and India test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara.