IPL auction 2024: Meet Mallika Sagar, IPL's first female auctioneer

Mallika Sagar has had a successful 23-year career in art auctioneering. (Image credit: @ishanjoshii, @CricCrazyJohn/X)

For the first time in the Indian Premiere League's 16-year history, a female auctioneer handled the gavel during the auction in Dubai on Tuesday.  Mallika Sagar, a Mumbai-based art collector and consultant, made history by breaking a trend that has seen only men--Welshman Richard Madley, Briton Hugh Edmeades, and Charu Sharma--spearhead the event.

“It’s extremely exciting to be asked to conduct an IPL auction,” the 49-year-old told Al Jazeera in a recent interview.

Here are 10 things to know about her:

1.) Mallika Sagar has had a successful 23-year career in art auctioneering and is an auctioneer at a privately-owned Mumbai-based auction house, Al Jazeera reported.

2.) She has been responsible for wielding the gavel at both the player auctions for the Women’s Premier League (WPL).

3.) In 2001, she became the first female auctioneer of Indian origin at the international art and luxury business Christie’s. Mallika Sagar is also an expert in modern art.

4.) Her introduction to the world of auctioneering came when, as a teenager in her hometown Mumbai, she read a book with a female auctioneer as its protagonist. “And, perhaps, a bit frivolously, I thought: ‘That’s what I want to be,’” Sagar told Al Jazeera.

5.) She was born into a business family in Mumbai and graduated with a degree in the history of art from the US before returning to the Maximum City again.

Mallika Sagar will become the first female auctioneer to conduct an IPL auction. pic.twitter.com/SwmUX0Ja9W

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— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) December 19, 2023

6.) Speaking to Al Jazeera, Mallika Sagar said she credits former IPL auctioneer Hugh Edmeades for introducing her to the Indian sports auctions. Edmeades had conducted IPL auctions from 2019 to 2022 and had collapsed midway through the event in Bengaluru.

7.) “Hugh had approached me to be his back-up for the IPL 2021 auction, given it was held amid quarantine during the Covid pandemic,” she told the publication. “I am immensely thankful to him for this introduction into the world of Indian cricket.”

8.) Mallika Sagar’s first stint at sport auctioneering came at the eighth edition of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL).

9.) She admitted to Al Jazeera that sport auctioneering “was a new world” for her, given her longstanding association with art. “It did take a little bit of training, largely to change my approach,” she said.

10.) Speaking about her preparations ahead of the IPL 2024 auctions, Mallika Sagar told the publication that it wasn't any different from the WPL. "The basic formats are the same,” she said. “The key is to make sure you are familiar with the names. You don’t want to destroy someone’s name who’s coming up on a platform as prestigious as this -- it’s their moment of glory, after all.”

Read more: IPL Auction 2024 Live: Mitchell Starc sold to KKR for Rs. 24.75 crore, becomes most expensive player in history