IPL 2021 auction to complete THIS monumental player salaries' milestone on Thursday

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is arguably one of the biggest T20 based franchise tournaments in the world. The mega league is a blend of cricket and entertainment which has been instrumental in changing the cricketing scenario in the country. The IPL has given the world cricket a lot of young cricketing talent. Over the years, Indian, as well as, foreign players have raked in big bucks from the lucrative league with the franchises shelling out huge sums to acquire the services of the players.

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IPL all set to cross ₹6,000 crore total salary today

According to a latest InsideSport report, the IPL is all set to cross the ₹6,000 crore total salary mark on Thursday at the IPL 2021 auction as 61 new cricketers will be bought and eight franchises are ready to spend ₹196.6 crore. The report further states that since IPL's inception in 2008 till date, 761 players have been bought by the IPL franchises which has resulted in spending of ₹59,990,545,046 (₹5,999 crore).

Naturally, Indian players are the biggest beneficiaries of IPL contracts with 464 of them earning deals in the cash-rich tournament. Indian cricketers have pocketed 56.7% of IPL players’ gross salaries which amounts to a whopping ₹33,998,066,981 (₹3,399 crore). On the other hand, 297 overseas cricketers have earned ₹2,599 crore from the IPL.

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As far as top individual earners from the IPL are concerned, MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are three players who have had an income of over ₹125 crore from the IPL. Besides Dhoni, Rohit and Kohli, two players in the form of Suresh Raina and AB de Villiers (only foreigner) have earned over ₹100 crore from the league. Notably, Dhoni is the only player to have crossed the ₹150 crore mark.

Australian cricketers follow Indian players in the list of highest earned salaries from the IPL with the Australians taking home a massive ₹852.7 crore. South Africa are at the third spot in the list with their players pocketing ₹522.5 crore from the mega league.

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IPL 2021 auction date and time

After a lot of curiosity around the IPL 2021 auction date and time, the BCCI on January 27 revealed that the IPL 2021 auction will take place on February 18 in Chennai. The IPL auction 2021 live streaming will begin at 3:00 PM (IST).  Fans in Indian can tune in to the Star Sports Network to catch the live telecast of the program. The IPL auction 2021 live streaming will also be made available on the Disney+ Hotstar app and website as well as on JioTV. To catch all the IPL 2021 auction updates click here.

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SOURCE: IPL TWITTER