When 22-year-old Kieron Pollard became the most expensive buy of the IPL 2010 auction, few would have predicted that he’d stay with the franchise for the next decade, let alone become arguably their biggest overseas name. To acquire Pollard, Mumbai went to great lengths on the auction day, but couldn’t stave off competition from three other franchises: Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders. All four teams were locked in a battle when the bid reached USD 750,000, the maximum bidding amount allowed.

To break the deadlock, auctioneer Richard Madley announced the tiebreaker rule, with Lalit Modi inviting secret bids from all four franchises to pick the winner. All four teams had to submit an undisclosed sum, with the franchise offering the highest amount taking home the player. One after another, the four teams deposited their bids in envelopes to Modi, who then called the owners to the podium to disclose the winner. Mumbai Indians were then declared the winner, having bid the highest sum among the four franchises. Mumbai reportedly offered a winning bid of USD 2.75 million, which unofficially made Pollard the most expensive player at that time. Later in the day, a similar method was followed to break the tie for Shane Bond.

Interestingly, the official value was eventually capped at USD 750,000 for both Pollard and Bond, with the excess amount from the tiebreaker bid going to the BCCI. When the silent tiebreaker was first proposed ahead of the auction in 2010, most of the teams had objected to the idea, with one franchise member reportedly suggesting that tied franchises draw lots for the player.

Modi, however, remained adamant on the rule, which helped BCCI pocket the excess amount that wouldn’t go to the player. In 2012, the method came into use once again, when both Deccan Chargers and Chennai Super Kings were jointly capped at $2 million. CSK’s undisclosed sum trumped DC’s offer, and Jadeja became a ‘Super King’.

Modi later said that the idea of the tiebreaker rule was to maintain a level-playing field in the auction. “The tiebreaker only came in because, how do you determine when you have a fixed purse for the tournament,” he told CNN IBN that year. “And this is well researched, that you reach the cap and still two teams are bidding, secret tie-breaker came as a penalty clause where the team actually pays back a higher fee but it goes back to the BCCI, which is then used to offset other player costs.

“But the objective, again, was to make it equal. All bidders get an equal opportunity to buy a player.”

However, an unnamed IPL official, speaking to ESPNcricinfo, accused Modi of favouritism, alleging that during Modi’s reign as IPL chief, teams with a bigger money-bank would benefit – such as Mumbai, in Pollard’s case – as he would end up bending rules and altering regulations. He also gave another instance of Modi seemingly tweaking rules to allow certain ICL [Indian Cricket League] players to feature for Mumbai.

Modi’s controversial tenure as an administrator came to an end in 2013, when he was banned for life by the BCCI after being found guilty of misconduct and indiscipline.

As far as things on the field go, Pollard is still with Mumbai Indians, while Jadeja continues to feature for Chennai Super Kings.