Richard Madley, one of the leading auctioneers from Britain, conducted the players’ auction for the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Wednesday. Madley spoke to Ananya Sengupta. Excerpts:

Q: How was the experience?

A: This is the first time in my career spanning 30 years that I have conducted an auction of this kind. In fact, no one has ever been a part of a players’ auction before.

Q: What was the total revenue generated?

A: A total of $41 million was spent today, and that is the biggest auction that I have ever been a part of in London or New York.

Q: For most of the franchisees, this was the first auction. How easy was it for you to conduct the event?

A: I was very impressed with the way all the teams conducted themselves — they were not only very professional in their approach, but they had also done their homework.

They had each nominated one of their team members as the bidder for their particular team. Thus, there was no chaos on the floor. They gave a faultless performance.

Q: How did you control tempers?

A: At the end of the evening, various teams hailed me with three cheers — after spending so much money at my behest, if I can still make them smile, my job is done! Humour is an asset for any auctioneer and I used it as a tool today.

Q: Any plans of returning to India?

A: I would love to return to India — provided the people can tolerate a strange Englishman who cannot pronounce Indian names!