From the start of the 2022 Indian Premier League auction, Delhi Capitals seemed to have been interested in most of the marquee players, bidding for six of the ten players. Though the team ended up buying only one of those players—David Warner—it seemed like Capitals’ co-owner Kiran Kumar Grandhi was on to something.
The businessman looked like he was on a mission to push the prices of players up without actually buying them. This attracted the attention of cricket fans on social media, most of whom lauded Grandhi’s tactics to make other teams spend more.
Grandhi is the CEO, MD and director of GMR Infrastructure. He is also chairman of the IPL team. He has been a constant feature at the auction table for the Delhi franchise over the years. Alongside him at the auction table on February 12 and 13 was Parth Jindal of the JSW group.
Memes of Grandhi raising his paddle for many key players did the round. The Capitals’ Twitter team joined in too.
Fans asking us how many bids we did after Day 1️⃣😅#IPLAuction #IPL2022 pic.twitter.com/OWEkKe13Au
— Delhi Capitals (@DelhiCapitals) February 13, 2022
You are watching a master at work!
— 🔰 Ramek Buji 🔰 (@Ramek_Buji_RB24) February 12, 2022
Kiran Kumar Grandhi 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽#DelhiCapitals#IPLMegaAuction2022 #IPLMegaAuction #IPLAuction pic.twitter.com/iNHC2mdvws
All IPL players, when Kiran Kumar Grandhi, aka, the Delhi Dude, when he leaves the auction room pic.twitter.com/pqFxIUCqbw
— The Kaipullai (@thekaipullai) February 14, 2022
Notably, most of Grandhi’s bids were aimed at players that teams were trying to retain, particularly Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians.
Despite entering the auction with the least amount available of all the franchises, Delhi Capitals made some good deals, getting Warner for just Rs 6.5 crore being one of them.
There was even a point when Grandhi created confusion for auctioneer Charu Sharma, who was standing in for the unwell Hugh Edmeades.
Delhi and Mumbai Indians were in a bidding war for bowler Khaleel Ahmed when Mumbai reached Rs 5.25 crore for him.
Grandhi half-heartedly raised his paddle to take the price to Rs 5.5 crore but immediately followed it up by asking for a moment to discuss it with his team.
But Sharma and the auction back-end team thought that Grandhi’s bid was for Rs 5.25 crore. Mumbai did not realise this mistake either and did not proceed with the next bid. Delhi ended up getting Ahmed for the price that Mumbai had bid for him.
Having already retained Rishabh Pant, Axar Patel, Anrich Nortje and Prithvi Shaw, Delhi went on to buy 19 more players at the auction.
