Ingram hits IPL jackpot

Whatever the lobola‚ Colin Ingram could afford it after his bumper payday at the 2019 Indian Premier League (IPL) player auction in Jaipur on Tuesday.

Anrich Nortjé‚ Hardus Viljoen and Heinrich Klaasen also cracked the nod‚ the latter for almost 13 times less than Ingram.

But there will be no drinks on Dale Steyn‚ Morné Morkel‚ Hashim Amla‚ Reeza Hendricks and Rilee Rossouw‚ who all went unsold.

Warriors star Ingram‚ 33‚ was bought by the Delhi Capitals‚ the Daredevils’ new name‚ for 64-million rupees.

That becomes‚ in dear old ront and at the current exchange rate‚ R12.9m.

A single Nguni cow‚ as Ingram – an Eastern Cape farmer’s son – could tell us having sprinkled the family farm with a fair few in the wake of last year’s wildfires wiping out their established orchards of proteas‚ costs about R8,000.

So‚ in theory and ignoring how much of the money Ingram will sacrifice to tax and other sundries‚ he could offer 1,622.8 head of cattle for a bride.

Not that he is likely to: Ingram and Megan Olivier were married in 2010. But he could significantly bump up the numbers in the cattle herd on his home patch.

“I’m really happy to be returning to the IPL and Delhi again after many years‚ and it’s going to be great to play with the hype and buzz that is cricket in India,” Ingram said.

“My family and I are thrilled at the news and I look forward to meeting up with the Delhi Capitals and getting my teeth into the exciting cricket that is IPL.”

Ingram was the first South African to come under the hammer‚ and he went for more than three times more than his reserve price.

Having played the last of his 40 white-ball games for SA five years ago‚ he has become part of an elite group of jet-setting T20 mercenaries.

Fresh from helping the Pakhtoons reach the final of the T10 League in Sharjah on December 2‚ from Sunday Ingram will pad up for the Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash League. He will hope for a better end to that tournament than he experienced in the Emirates‚ where he was caught behind first ball off Viljoen in the Pakhtoons’ 22-run loss to the Northern Warriors.

That will not put a dent in the reputation the big-hitting left-hander has earned as a player who gets the job done.

Ingram has played 188 games for nine franchises spread around the T20 globe‚ scoring three centuries for Glamorgan along with 14 half-centuries for most of the rest.

For all that‚ next year’s IPL will only be Ingram’s second stint in the tournament: he had three games for Delhi in 2011.

Nortjé can thank the Mzansi Super League for the just more than R4m he will be paid by the Kolkata Knight Riders.

He cranked up the pace to take eight wickets for the Cape Town Blitz before suffering an ankle injury.

Viljoen became the property of Kings XI Punjab for a shade more than R1.5m.

Klaasen stepped into the breach for the Rajasthan Royals last year after they sacked their appointed captain‚ Steve Smith‚ for his role in the Newlands ball-tampering scandal.

Klaasen scored just 57 runs in four innings for the Royals‚ but clearly did enough in the service of other teams – not least SA‚ for whom he has smacked 144 runs in six trips to the crease – to earn another opportunity.

He was acquired by Royal Challengers Bangalore for just more than R1m‚ a pittance by Ingram’s standards.

And Ingram was not even the most expensive property sold. Indians Jaydev Unadkat and Varun Chakravarthy went for R17m apiece‚ while England’s Sam Curran fetched R14.6m.

Steyn was a star attraction for most of the first seven editions of the IPL. But since 2015 he has played only seven games in the IPL‚ as injuries took their toll.

Morkel has not appeared on T20’s greatest stage for two years while Amla has not been thought worth buying for the second year running.

Rossouw played three games in 2014 and two more a year later‚ all for Bangalore‚ but Hendricks will have to wait until 2020 for the chance to make his IPL debut.

Twenty-six of the 346 players in the auction were South Africans.