The iconic Sachin Tendulkar’s son Arjun Tendulkar’s nascent cricketing career got a major fillip on Thursday when he was picked by Mumbai Indians at the IPL players’ auction, the last name to go under the hammer in Chennai.
The franchise for which his father didn’t just play but also took up mentorship of youngsters, bought Arjun for Rs 20 lakh, which was his base price. It was hardly a surprise given that he has been a net bowler for the franchise for the past two-three seasons. The 21-year-old recently made his senior Mumbai team debut when he played in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, the national T20 championship, against Haryana.
In cricket’s box office, this Shahrukh Khan is already a hit
Punjab Kings owner Preity Zinta leaned back in her chair, looked at the Kolkata Knight Riders table, and gave a triumphant shout: “We’ve got Shahrukh”. On the KKR table was Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan. On Thursday, Zinta’s team pocketed Tamil Nadu’s swashbuckling middle-order batsman M Shahrukh Khan for Rs 5.25 crore. And that became the story of the IPL 2021 auction, once again triggering Bollywood meets cricket, and Veer meets Zara, references on social media. Meanwhile, far from the auction venue in Chennai, Shahrukh Khan, the cricketer, was on a bus in Indore with his Tamil Nadu teammates, following the auction on phone.