1st woman IPL auctioneer hammers home art of selling sports stars | India News

For the first time in her two-decade career, Mallika Sagar wore sneakers to work on December 19 last year. Apart from helping her fill the large shoes of British auctioneer Hugh Edmeades, the pair of kicks kept her going during her seven-hour, headline-grabbing debut selling 72 male cricketers for over Rs 200 crore in a large arena in Dubai as the IPL’s first woman auctioneer.
The stint came 22 years after she sold baseball memorabilia to a roomful of well-heeled Americans as the first Indian woman auctioneer at Christie’s in NY.”They may have been more than a little surprised to see a young Indian auctioneer who probably knew nothing about their collecting category,” says Sagar. “They were absolutely right.”
Born the youngest of four in Mumbai, Sagar-of self-confessed “limited creative genes and no aptitude for painting”-grew up visiting museums, walking around monuments and reading numerous art books, thanks to her father and grandfather’s interest. In her teens, she read a novel whose protagonist was a female auctioneer. “It was a frivolous read at best, but planted a seed in my head,” she says. “By the time I got to college, I was convinced that I wanted to major in art history.”
She studied at Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia, where she developed a deep love for Moorish and Islamic architecture. She chose modern Indian art as her thesis topic when the field was relatively nascent.
The first auctioneer she watched live was Christopher Burge, Christie’s lead auctioneer for years. “He was charismatic and engaging with a dry British sense of humour. Superb combination,” she says.
Women auctioneers, too, dotted the art landscape in the US at the time. Keen to learn, Sagar approached a “seriously tough but superb lady” who ran the training programme at Christie’s in NY. “I asked her if I could come and watch the weekly training sessions and she said yes.” A few months in, the trainer told her “to get up on the podium and give it a go,” says Sagar, recalling the day she sold baseball memorabilia in 2001. “She liked what she saw and trained me.”
Being an art auctioneer may look like a glamorous job, “but it requires hard work and serious commitment”, says Sagar, counting her team at Pundole’s-the Ballard Estate auction house-as a blessing. Most people, she feels, don’t realise that auctioneering thrives on a cocktail of quick thinking, drama and theatre. “A sense of humour is essential,” says Sagar, who has to often clarify that auctioneers don’t say ‘going once, going twice!’ “That’s more movie parlance,” she says.
The chance at IPL came in the wake of Hugh Edmeades, its auctioneer, asking Sagar to be his backup amid Covid in 2021. A few months on, she was asked to be the auctioneer for Pro Kabaddi League in September 2021. “It was my first experience with auctioning sports personalities,” she says. She was later approached by BCCI for the inaugural Women’s Premier League players’ auction in February 2023.
“My family, right from my grandfather, has been extremely involved with cricket. Players’ names, fielding positions and batting averages were part of my daily life. Yet, the transition from art to sport is something I am extremely conscious of. While both situations require you to present whatever is on offer in the best possible light, sport auctions need a higher level of sensitivity as it is people’s lives and professions at stake,” she says.
From Christie’s first Indian female auctioneer to the IPL’s first woman auctioneer, “it has been an exciting and fulfilling two decades, no question,” says Sagar, who has also participated in various charity auctions over the last 20 years to help raise funds for causes such as education, healthcare, children with special needs and cancer care.
To budding auctioneers in India who must do their own bidding, she advises: “Pursue your goals, and don’t be deterred by lack of information. It is a very niche field. So, it just takes a little bit of extra effort and courage.”

This post was originally published on this site