The Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) owner Sanjiv Goenka has shared they were interested in reacquiring Marcus Stoinis in the IPL 2025 auction. However, he added that the franchise couldn’t use the Right To Match card for him as the bid price was beyond their budget.
LSG released Stoinis ahead of the IPL auction and the Punjab Kings (PBKS) outbid the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to acquire him for ₹11 crore at the mega auction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra’, Goenka said, “Stoinis was definitely in our plans. We would have used the RTM for him had he been within 10 to 10.25 crores, but he went beyond. Yes, we would have definitely wanted Stoinis with us. We are disappointed that he is not, but this is the dynamic of any auction, now what to do?”

ALSO READ: Hardik Pandya shares happiness after winning back the love of fans

“You cannot let your personal likes dictate what is best for the franchise. What is good for the franchise is good for the franchise. Stoinis is very good. He was our second-highest (third-highest) run-getter last season. He was not given that much bowling, but he was probably the most effective bowler after Mayank (Yadav),” he shared.

In the same video, Aakash Chopra also asked Sanjiv Goenka about the Lucknow Super Giants’ decision to use the RTM card for Shamar Joseph a swell.

“We had a limited purse remaining by then, and we had to pick (Matthew) Breetzke as well because we needed a fall-back opener. Matt has done very well for us in South Africa. We feel that the Lucknow kind of pitch may suit him and his kind of batting, and he is explosive when he gets going. We had two crores left. Shamar was at 75 lakhs. Matt was also at 75 lakhs and we had to take Yuvraj (Chaudhary), who was at 30 lakhs. So we could have taken a 75-lakh bowler only. We wanted an international pace bowler as a backup. Shamar looked best to us in the options we had for 75 lakhs,” Sanjiv Goenka concluded.