England’s Eoin Morgan, Jason Roy, Chris Woakes and Sam Curran have all earned six-figure contracts in the Indian Premier League’s player auction.
Morgan, who led England to World Cup success in 2019, was auctioned for £563,000 to Kolkata Knight Riders, who are coached by Brendon McCullum.
Kolkata also made Australia’s Pat Cummins (£1.7m) the most expensive overseas player in IPL history.
Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Jofra Archer remain with Rajasthan Royals.
The England trio were not part of the auction after the franchise opted to retain them from last season’s squad. Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali were also retained by Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore respectively.
Roy and Woakes both went to Delhi Capitals for their base price of £161,000, while Curran was bought by Chennai Super Kings for £590,000.
Curran was released from his £800,000 contract by Kings XI Punjab after his debut season in 2019 despite taking a match-winning hat-trick in one game.
His older brother, Tom, was picked up by Rajasthan for £108,000, while Kings XI acquired T20 specialist Chris Jordan for £323,000 and Somerset batsman Tom Banton, who made his England debut in the T20s in New Zealand last month, was bought by Kolkata for £108,000.
Banton will link up there with Morgan and former New Zealand captain McCullum thinks he has got himself a bargain.
“Banton was the icing on the cake,” McCullum told India’s Star Sports. “He’s an excitement machine and reminiscent of Kevin Pietersen.
“He’s also a back-up wicketkeeper. We’re really excited to meet Banton. He will also enjoy playing alongside his England captain, which will be a motivating factor.”
But there were no takers for two members of England’s successful World Cup squad, pace bowlers Mark Wood and Liam Plunkett.
