The two-day IPL 2025 Mega Auction concluded on Monday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia with players like Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul heading to new teams. However, the biggest talking point of this auction was the major mistake made by auctioneer Mallika Sagar while entering the acceleration stage.

The error was committed in the name of Uttar Pradesh's 19-year-old Swastik Chikara, whose bidding raised quite a heated disagreement between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Capitals.

Mallika Sagar's major error during IPL 2025 mega auction

In the final few minutes of the 2-day long IPL 2025 mega auction, auctioneer Mallika Sagar invited all the 10 franchises to drop in names of the unsold players they wish to purchase in the final acceleration round. When the uncapped player Swastik Chikara was up for auction, RCB showed their interest and sealed the player straight away at the base price of INR 30 lakh.

Delhi Capitals, however, protested when they felt that their owner, Kiran Grandhi, too had put his paddle in the air during the auction of the player. However, it seems that, in the excitement to close the auction, auctioneer Mallika Sagar had not recognised the raised paddle of Grandhi.

While RCB tentatively welcomed this youngster into their squad, the DC camp cried foul claiming their opportunity to get Chikara was unjustly ignored. This mistake left both teams in a state of uncertainty, with DC clearly dissatisfied with the process.

Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad face Pay Extra

Besides the dispute between Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore, Sagar's errors led both Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad paying extra amount during auction. During the bidding for Jos Buttler a miscommunication led to Gujarat Titans ended up paying ₹15.75 crore , even though Rajasthan Royals had placed a lower bid.

The error happened when Mallika Sagar, mistakenly announced a higher bid than intended. The situation unfolded when Gujarat Titans had bid ₹15.50 crore, and Sagar, while asking Lucknow Super Giants if they wanted to increase the bid to ₹15.75 crore, got confused. LSG declined, but Sagar unintentionally called out ₹15.75 crore as the final bid, leading Gujarat Titans to overpay by ₹25 lakh.

Another mix-up occurred during the auction for Abhinav Manohar, who had a base price of ₹ 30 lakh. A bidding war occurred between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), RCB, Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad. SRH won the battle to sign Manohar for ₹2.80 crore.

However,Sagar had missed noticing a bid from Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), and once she realized it, SRH had to raise their bid to ₹3.20 crore to seal the deal, which meant a higher cost than initially expected.