The Indian Premier League (IPL) is widely regarded as the most celebrated cricketing event across the globe. Over the years, the cash-rich tournament has gone from strength to strength, creating new records of viewership, media rights and revenue.

However, there were doubts among the Indian cricketers as how the auction and the league would pan out when the tournament started in 2008.

Speaking on Star Sports' show 'The Incredible Awards', former India opener Virender Sehwag recalled the inaugural IPL auction when he was with the national team on the tour of Australia.

Sehwag revealed that it was Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri who approached the players and assured them that the league would become huge in India in the coming years.

"A lot of time has passed since the inception of the IPL. My children have become adults and they’ve started playing cricket too. But I will never forget the first time we were briefed about this when we were in Australia," Sehwag stated.

"Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri approached us and said that there is going to be an Indian Premier League and they were asking for all our rights. So, we were wondering whether the league would be successful or not – what if after giving away our rights we do not gain anything from it.

"But they assured us that the coming years will be very big for cricket in India and whatever rights we grant to this league, we will be able to earn much more than that. Money was secondary at the time, but we didn’t know that the league would give rise to so many youngsters who would one day replace us and become stars," he further said.

In 2022, the BCCI added two new teams in the Indian Premier League to make it a 10-team competition.

The 2023 edition of the IPL is likely to get underway in the last week of March.