Even after going for a hefty fee of Rs 14.5 crore in IPL auction, England’s Ben Stokes is still behind Premier Wrestling League (PWL) star Mariya Stadnik in terms of per minute earnings.
Ben Stokes, 25, struck gold at the recently held auction for the cash-rich league in Bengaluru, where more than three franchises splurged money on him before Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS) came out of nowhere and won the bid for him. Also at his price, he became the most expensive foreign buy in history of the IPL auction.
However, Stadnik, Ukrainian and Azerbaijani female wrestler, who was signed by PWL franchise Delhi Sultans for 47 lakh is believe to earn nearly Rs 4,47,619.05 per minute, reading better than that of Stokes. Though, the 2016 Rio Games silver medalist was only called for four bouts and remained up to 10.5 minutes on the mat during the 18-day-long season.
Delhi’s co-owner Anurag Batra said both sports are different but the 48kg weight category wrestler leads the way.
“Although cricket is different from wrestling or other sports, format-wise, in terms of earning per minute on field of play, Mariya is way ahead of Ben Stokes.”
Stokes, will now make his debut in the lucrative league along with his teammates Tymal Mills, who became the second most expensive purchase, going for a whopping Rs 12 crore to RCB, and also opener Jason Roy, who was picked by Gujarat Lions on his base price of one crore.