As Mitchell Starc gets ready to spend the holidays away from his cricket wife Alyssa Healy, his record-breaking $2.98 million deal at the Indian Premier League auctions was the perfect Christmas present for the match-winning pacer.
Australia’s all-around hero made league history as the most expensive player when Kolkata Knight Riders made an incredible bid on Tuesday.
As Starc rested ahead of the second test against Pakistan in Melbourne, he watched the auction from home in Sydney.
Ahead of the Mumbai one-off test, Healy, the newly appointed captain of the Australian women’s team, observed from India.
Regarding the outcome of the auction, Starc remarked, “I’m not sure any words will do it justice.”
“Undoubtedly, Alyssa is currently in Australia with the Australian team, so I believe she received the numbers ahead of me due to her coverage being a little earlier than mine.
“I was pretty shocked and excited about how everything was turning out, but it was nothing I could have ever imagined.
“It’s a Christmas full of cricket as usual but it’s certainly one with a nice little cherry on the cake.”
Daryl Mitchell, a New Zealand all-rounder, stunned everyone with his massive 140 million rupees ($1.68 million) contract to join Chennai, causing excitement on both sides of the Tasman Sea.
Mitchell had initially agreed to pay 7.5 million rupees to join the Rajasthan Royals for two IPL appearances in 2022, but the bid represented a significant increase.
The 32-year-old told New Zealand media, “As you see the paddles going up, your heart starts to pump a little bit.”
“But having been through the auction before and going unsold, it was a pretty special night last night to experience that.”
The day after the auction, on Wednesday, Mitchell, who was a major factor in New Zealand’s recent run to the World Cup semi-finals in India, also marked his daughter’s birthday.
“She’s got a pretty good present, waking up to that – not that she understands what’s going on,” he continued.
“But that’s the whole thing about these sorts of situations – it helps set up your family in many ways so that they can grow up and enjoy the things they love.”