Do you know?

Before the 2011 IPL, BCCI decided to add 2 new teams. So they made a rule to force all existing teams to release their whole squad. And each team would get $9 million.

And if any team wanted to retain old players, BCCI decided on a fixed amount that would be deducted from their purse.

- 1st Player: $1.8 million
- 2nd Player: $1.3 million
- 3rd Player: $900,000
- 4th Player: $500,000

Due to these fixed prices, retaining players made no sense. Only 4 teams decided to retain players.

CSK & MI retained 4 players. RR retained 2 and RCB retained 1.

Deccan Chargers promised captaincy to Rohit Sharma and decided to purchase him in the auction.

In the auction day, Richard Madley started Rohit's bid at $200K and Deccan Chargers raised the paddle first. Everyone thought DC would retain Rohit. But that day, Punjab and MI had other plans. Punjab, MI and DC began a war and within a blink, the price rose to $1.5 million.

Now DC had nothing left except regret, as they didn't have enough funds to stay in the race. Gayatri Reddy literally was in tears when this happened. They can't retain the guy which they decided to be their Captain.

But the other teams, Punjab & MI was still there. MI and PBKS kept bidding, and Rohit slowly crossed Sachin, Kohli and Dhoni retention prices.

MI was in no mood to leave him. In the end, PBKS also exhausted their purse. And MI purchased Rohit for $2 million. And Rohit became the most expensive youngster of that season.

If DC had never made the mistake of releasing Rohit into the auction, he would have been the Deccan Chargers captain in the 2011 IPL. And when SRH was formed in 2013, they retained the DC players. So Rohit would automatically have been the SRH captain as well.

But some relationships are never meant to be complete. Rohit & Hyderabad will always remain an incomplete story for me. 💔🥀