R9.8m has Rabada's world spinning

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CAPE TOWN – Kagiso Rabada’s world continues to change faster than even the young paceman can deliver the ball. Considering he has the ability to fire it in at speeds in excess of 150km/h, Rabada’s world is certainly spinning. On Monday the 21-year-old Proteas fast bowler’s supreme talents were purchased by the Delhi Daredevils for $750 000, which converts to R9.8million, at the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction.

Rabada will be making his debut in this year’s IPL after opting to sit out last season to gain some English County Championship experience with Kent. He had a base price of 1 crore (1 00 000 000 Indian Rupees/ US$149 254) with Kings XI Punjab meeting the first bid. Delhi then upped it to 1.1 with Punjab raising it to 1.2.

The bidding went back and fourth before Punjab raised to it 2 crore. It suddenly went up to 5 crore ($750 000) with Delhi claiming the prized fast bowler.

Rabada is currently on tour with the Proteas in New Zealand and remains steadfastly focused on his national team duties and declined to comment on his life-altering deal with Delhi. He did, however, post a cryptic tweet.

Success is a lousy teacher — kagiso rabada (@KagisoRabada25) February 20, 2017

Rabada joins fellow Proteas teammates Quinton de Kock‚ JP Duminy and Chris Morris at Delhi, who are also coached by former South African mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton.

The youngster will also share a dressing room with England opening batsman Sam Billings and Australian quickie Pat Cummins. Billings was really excited that the pace-bowling duo would be on the same side as him.

Great news! Welcome lads 🙌🏼 @KagisoRabada25 @patcummins30 looking forward to facing you two in the nets. 🤔😳😂 https://t.co/RntJAtauXq — Sam Billings (@sambillings) February 20, 2017

Rabada’s good fortune, though, was in contrast to eight other South Africans, which included the world’s number one T20 bowler, Imran Tahir, who all went unsold yesterday. Tahir played for Delhi last season but was released this year.

Proteas fast bowler Dale Steyn, who will not be in action at this year’s IPL for the first time since its induction back in 2008 due to injury, had soothing words for Tahir, Farhaan Behardien‚ Wayne Parnell‚ Andile Phehlukwayo and Dwayne Pretorius. Kyle Abbott was also rejected.

Plenty hours spent on strategies going into IPL auction & interesting watching it unfold. Always tough for those not bought... Stay strong! — Dale Steyn (@DaleSteyn62) February 20, 2017

The Proteas team management are expected to call back its players from the IPL on May 7 in preparation for the ICC Champions Trophy in England. Considering there would still be a week left of the league stages and still the all-important playoffs to come, it could have influenced the buyers to stay clear from the rest of the South Africans.

Coach Russell Domingo and physiotherapist Brendon Jackson will though be wary of Rabada’s workload for the 21-year-old will be playing non-stop cricket from now straight through until the end of August later this year.

England’s management staff will equally be keeping a close eye on its prized-asset Ben Stokes with the all-rounder securing a whopping $2.16m deal with the Rising Pune Super Giants

"I tried to watch it live on a stream but it wasn’t working so I had to follow it on Twitter! There were so many tweets on it that it was hard to keep up and I was awake from about 03:30. Then I had another hour’s sleep before I was up with the kids!

"I’m really pleased now that it’s sorted and it’s started to sink in. I can’t wait to get over there and meet everyone at Rising Pune Supergiants and I’m really grateful to them for giving me this opportunity. In terms of cricket experience, it will only do me the world of good," Stokes said of the prospect of playing in his first IPL.

Fellow Englishman Tyle Mills was the next most expensive player with the left-arm fast bowler being signed for the equivalent of R2.4m despite his international experience being limited to only four T20I’s in which he has taken just three wickets.

Independent Media