England players attracted megabucks bids in the Indian Premier League auction yesterday, with all-rounder Ben Stokes setting a new record for a foreigner by joining the Rising Pune Supergiants for more than $2mn.
 England pace bowler Tymal Mills was the big surprise as he went to the Royal Challengers Bangalore for $1.8mn, even though he has only played four Twenty20 internationals.
 The winning bids for Stokes and Mills dwarfed the $300,000 shelled out by the Kings XI Punjab to secure the services of England’s limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan for the T20 tournament, which begins in April.
 Stokes attracted multiple bids from the rival franchises competing in the eight-team tournament before the gavel finally came down after Pune put in a bid of 145mn rupees (around 2.16mn US dollars).
 The winning bid shattered the previous record paid for a foreign player, which was set in 2014 when the Delhi Daredevils shelled out 90mn rupees for former England captain Kevin Pietersen. But it is still short of the 160mn rupees that the Royal Challengers Bangalore paid for Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh in 2015.
 While a percentage of the auction fee goes to the player’s national board, Stokes, England’s newly anointed Test vice-captain, is now in line to make more in just seven weeks than he would in a whole year of cricket for the England team.
 It was not immediately clear whether Stokes will play the whole tournament or leave towards the end, which would result in a reduced pay cheque, as England are due to play two ODI matches against Ireland in May.
 Pune coach Stephen Fleming admitted it was something of a “gamble” to pay so much for a player with a history of injury problems, but that Stokes will add extra flair to a team that already has Australia captain Steve Smith and ex-Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni in its ranks.
 “It’s a risk but we are ready to take it. We have got all-round options and (it) gives us more options down the order,” the former New Zealand captain told reporters. “We are going to put youngsters under big players and keep our fingers crossed.”
 Stokes has had his share of verbal run-ins with Australia in Ashes Test matches but Smith welcomed him with open arms and joked that he expected his new teammate to buy him a drink now that he was flush with cash. “Welcome to Pune @benstokes38 first round is on you!” Smith wrote on Twitter.
 While Stokes had been expected to attract big bids, the fee for Mills was unexpected but underlines his form on England’s recent tour of India, when he was his side’s most economical fast bowler.
 Bangalore have no shortage of batting talent with Indian skipper Virat Kohli and South Africa’s AB de Villiers already on board. But Mills’ signing should address the lack of a top-quality fast bowler for last year’s beaten finalists.
 Other players to hit the jackpot included New Zealand seamer Trent Boult and South Africa’s Kagiso Rabda, who were both sold for around 50mn rupees each for Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Daredevils respectively.
 The auction also saw the first Afghan players to be signed up for the tournament, with Rashid Khan and Mohamed Nabi going to Sunrisers Hyderabad for 40mn and 3mn rupees, respectively.
 While most of India’s big name players are already attached to franchises, several newcomers bagged lucrative deals such as Karn Sharma (Mumbai Indians — 32mn rupees) and T Natarajan (Kings XI Punjab — 30mn rupees).
 The IPL, which was first held in 2008, begins on April 5 and runs until May 21.
 With England hosting South Africa in a one-day series in May, Stokes is set to miss the final phase of the April 5-May 21 tournament, yet the bidding surged from his base price of 20mn rupees. Pune owner Sanjiv Goenka told reporters that Stokes would bring something new to the team for the 10th edition of the tournament.
 “He’s a complete player and he completes our squad. We’ve been lacking this one genre of player,” he said. “We knew he was going to be there for the first 14 games. We pretty much knew we were not going to get him for below this price.”
 All-rounder Chris Woakes was the third England player to get a hefty payday, going to Kolkata Knight Riders for 42mn rupees. Delhi Daredevils bought Australian paceman Pat Cummins for 45mn rupees, while compatriot Mitchell Johnson, who quit international cricket in 2015, returned to his former team Mumbai Indians for 20mn.
 Owners mostly gave the cold shoulder to slow bowlers, with South African leg-spinner Imran Tahir, who tops both the one-day and Twenty20 bowling rankings, going unsold.
 For Mills, 24, the leap into the top-earning elite marks a significant milestone for a cricketer who has been forced to specialise in Twenty20 due a congenital back condition that restricts his workload and, at one stage, came close to ending his career.
 The deal for Stokes, meanwhile, is roughly twice the amount the Durham all-rounder earns from his international central contract and now sees him become the highest-earning England cricketer of all time overall. Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff, who secured 1.2mn pounds deals in 2009, are the only English cricketers to have previously drawn such eye-watering numbers.
 The IPL auction, in which the eight franchises topped up their squads for the seven-week tournament that begins on April 5, saw two other England players earn contracts too, with Jason Roy picked up by Gujarat Lions for £120,000 and Chris Jordan earning £60,000 to go to defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad.
 These six will join their international teammates Jos Buttler and Sam Billings, who already have deals from last year at Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils. Alex Hales and Jonny Bairstow, the two other England players to enter the auction, went unsold.
  Karn Sharma, a leg-spinner, secured the highest price for an Indian cricketer with a £380,000 contract at Mumbai, while Chesteshwar Pujara and Ishant Sharma, who both featured in the 4-0 Test series victory over England in December, went unsold.

Ben Stokes