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British international fine art, classic car and charity auctioneer, Hugh Edmeades is set to miss the Indian Premier League 2024 auction on December 19. After an entertaining retention announcement day, the IPL gears up to the auction where Edmeades, despite being the regular auctioneer since 2018, will be replaced by Malika Sagar, a Mumbai-based art collector and consultant for Modern and Contemporary Indian art.
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Malika Sagar took control of the proceedings during the maiden Women's Premier League (WPL) player auction at the Jio World Convention Center in February 2023. As reported by Sportstar, the BCCI has already informed Edmeades that his services would not be required for this IPL auction. As mentioned earlier, Hugh Edmeades was the regular IPL auctioneer from 2018 after taking over the responsibility from Richard Medley.
But in February 2022's mega auction, Hugh Edmeades collapsed due to “postural hypotension” in ITC Gardenia, Bengaluru. Filling in Hughs, veteran Indian T.V. personality, Charu Sharma took control of the auction. After the incident, Hugh Edmeades returned as the auctioneer in late 2022 for the IPL 2023 mini-auction which seemingly was his last association with the premier T20 tournament.
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Coming back to Malika Sagar, alongside being the auctioneer for the inaugural WPL auction, she is also a partner with the Art India consultants firm. Sagar has plenty of experience conducting auctions with Pundoles (an art gallery) in Mumbai.
Notably, Mallika was the first female auctioneer of Indian origin at Christie's and held the first sale of Modern Indian Art in New York in 2000. Interestingly, the WPL auction wasn't Malika Sagar's entry into the world of sports as she has regularly conducted the auction for the Pro Kabaddi League.
