PTI, Jan 8, 2011, 06.29pm IST
BANGALORE: Opener Gautam Gambhir on Saturday became the costliest cricketer in the IPL by fetching a whopping $2.4million (approx Rs 11.04 crore) on the first day of the auctions where Indian players proved to be the biggest draw with three others going for more than $2million.
In a high-profile auction, where Bollywood stars and corporate bigwigs were locked in a bidding war, Kolkata Knight Riders bought Gambhir for the mind-boggling sum, beating the previous high set by the Englishduo of Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff ($1.55 million) lastseason.
Shah Rukh Khan was not present in person but his KolkataKnight Riders, which had been reduced to an also-ran in the last two seasons,proved to be the big spender of the day by also buying hard-hitting all-roundersYusuf Pathan (Rs 9.66 crore) and Jacques Kallis (Rs 5.06 crore) for the fourthedition of event to be held from April 8 to May 20.
Gambhir, who was captain of the Delhi Daredevils last season, saw his price skyrocket 12 times from his base price of $200,000 (Rs 92 lakh) while three other Indian players --Yusuf ($2.1 million), Rohit Sharma ($2 million) and Robin Uthappa (2.1 million)crossed the two million mark.
Yusuf's younger brother Irfan, who hasnot played any cricket this season, was taken by Delhi Daredevils for asurprisingly high amount of $1.9 (Rs 8.74 crore) million.
But there were some surprise names in the unsold list with former India and KKR captain Sourav Ganguly, West Indies batting star Chris Gayle and the legendary BrianLara failing to find a buyer.
There is still a slim chance of these players finding a team after their names come up again in the second round of bidding.
The bidding trend at the auction at times appeared to defylogic but what was certain was that the franchises were willing to spend big money on the Indian players. Mahela Jayawardene was the most expensive foreign player going to Kochi at $1.5 million (Rs 6.90 crore).
Cricket aside,Bollywood stars Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty provided the glamour quotientwhile liquor baron Vijay Mallya, his son Siddharth, Nita Ambani and Nusli Wadiaadded the corporate aura at the auction.
Cricketing brains such as Anil Kumble, Stephen Fleming, Geoff Lawson and Darren Lehmann, who have been roped in either as coaches or mentors by the franchises, helped them work out the bidding strategies.
As expected, big money was spent but the way it was spent on some players was baffling. Robin Uthappa, who has been out of national reckoning for quite some time, was bought for an astounding $2.1million (Rs 9.66 crore) by Sahara Pune Warriors who opened their account by buying Yuvraj Singh for $1.8 million (Rs 8.28 crore approx).
Pune got Yuvraj, the icon player of Kings XI Punjab till last season, after beating TeamKochi and the batsman's former team in the bid.
Even Rohit Sharma'sprice of $2 million (Rs 9.2 crore), which Mumbai Indians paid, came as a surprise in an auction where proven T20 specialists such as Jesse Ryder,Herschelle Gibbs, Mark Boucher and Graeme Swann went unsold.
There was intense bidding for Gambhir, who was the first player under the hammer, from Pune and Mumbai before KKR joined the fray after it crossed the million dollar mark.
Kings XI Punjab also lost the bid of Sri Lankan MahelaJayawardene who was bought by Kochi for $1.5 million.
The RoyalChallengers Bangalore bought Zaheer Khan for $900,000 and dashing Lankan opener Tillakaratne Dilshan for $650,000.
However, the Vijay Mallya-ownedfranchise had a prize catch in talented South African AB de Villiers, buying himfor $1.1 million (Rs 5.06 crore). They also got New Zealand captain DanielVettori for only $550,000.
The Rajasthan Royals bought New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor for $1 million (Rs 4.6 crore). But what turned out to be a surprise was South African off-spinner Johan Botha being bought after a lot of bidding for $950,000.
However, Kevin Pietersen, who was one of the most sought after players in the second and third edition, was bought by DeccanChargers for $650,000 much less than his million dollar price in the earlier years.
Andrew Symonds, who was one of the costliest players during season one, was bought for $850,000 by Mumbai Indians.
After the first two rounds, Team Kochi had bought the maximum five players (Mahela Jayawardene, Brendon McCullum, VVS Laxman, S Sreesanth and Rudra PratapSingh).
Kochi were quite lucky to buy McCullum for as low a price as$475,000 considering his reputation as a T20 dasher.
Sahara PuneWarriors were also a gainer as they got South African captain Graeme Smith for$500,000 only.
Kings XI Punjab who lost all their key players including the Lankan duo of Kumar Sangakkara (bought by Deccan Chargers for$650,000) and Jayawardene ($1.5 million for Kochi) and Yuvraj to Pune finally had something to cheer when they successfully bid for former Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist for $900,000.
After the lunch break,there were some more surprises with the young Saurabh Tiwary bought by RoyalChallengers Bangalore for $1.6 million (Rs 7.36 crore). Punjab also spent $1.4million (approx Rs 6.34 crore) on Australian David Hussey.
South African speedster Dale Steyn, who made life difficult for Indian batsmen during the recent drawn Test series, was bought by Deccan Chargers for $1.2 million (Rs5.5 crore).
Australia's injury-plagued speedster Brett Lee went for his base price of $400,000 to Kolkata after failing to invite a bid for quite awhile in the auction.
South Africans were hot picks at the auction with Steyn's pace partner Morne Morkel going to Delhi at$475,000.
The run-up to the auction was marred by legal wrangling between the BCCI and two franchise -- Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab --both of whom were initially booted out of the event over ownership issues before coming back through court orders.
| Player | Country | Purchased By | Base Price | Bidding Price | Role |
| Gautam Gambhir | India | KKR | $200,000 | $2.4 million | Batsman |
| Yusuf Pathan | India | KKR | $400,000 | $2.1 million | All-rounder |
| Robin Uthappa | India | Pune | $200,000 | $2.1 million | Batsman |
| Rohit Sharma | India | MI | $200,000 | $2 million | All-rounder |
| Irfan Pathan | India | DD | $200,000 | $1.9 million | All-rounder |
| Yuvraj Singh | India | Pune | $400,000 | $1.8 million | All-rounder |
| Saurab Tiwari | India | RCB | $100,000 | $1.6 million | Batsman |
| Mahela Jayawardene | Sri Lanka | Kochi | $400,000 | $1.5 million | Batsman |
| David Hussey | Australia | Kings XI | $300,000 | $1.4 million | All-rounder |
| Dale Steyn | South Africa | DC | $200,000 | $1.2 million | Bowler |
| AB de Villiers | South Africa | RCB | $400,000 | $1.1 million | Batsman |
| Muralitharan | Sri Lanka | Kochi | $300,000 | $1.1 million | Bowler |
| Cameron White | Australia | DC | $300,000 | $1.1 million | Batsman |
| Jacques Kallis | South Africa | KKR | $300,000 | $1.1 million | Batsman |
| Ross Taylor | New Zealand | RR | $400,000 | $1million | Batsman |
| Johan Botha | South Africa | RR | $200,000 | $950,000 | Bowler |
| Angelo Mathews | Sri Lanka | Pune | $300,000 | $950,000 | All-rounder |
| Ravindra Jadeja | India | Kochi | $100,000 | $950,000 | All-rounder |
| Piyush Chawla | India | Kings XI | $100,000 | $900,000 | Bowler |
| Zaheer Khan | India | RCB | $400,000 | $900,000 | Bowler |
| Adam Gilchrist | Australia | Kings XI | $400,000 | $900,000 | Wicket-keeper |
| Dinesh Karthik | India | Kings XI | $200,000 | $900,000 | Wicket-keeper |
| S Sreesanth | India | Kochi | $200,000 | $900,000 | Bowler |
| R Ashwin | India | CSK | $100,000 | $850,000 | Bowler |
| Ashish Nehra | India | Pune | $200,000 | $850,000 | Bowler |
| Andrew Symonds | Australia | MI | $300,000 | $850,000 | All-rounder |
| S Badrinath | India | CSK | $100,000 | $800,000 | Batsman |
| Praveen Kumar | India | Kings XI | $200,000 | $800,000 | Bowler |
| Abhishek Nayar | India | Kings XI | $50,000 | $800,000 | All-rounder |
| David Warner | Australia | DD | $200,000 | $750,000 | Batsman |
| C Pujara | India | RCB | $100,000 | $700,000 | Batsman |
| Doug Bollinger | Australia | CSK | $200,000 | $700,000 | Bowler |
| Kumar Sangakkara | Sri Lanka | DC | $300,000 | $700,000 | Wicket-keeper |
| T Dilshan | Sri Lanka | RCB | $400,000 | $650,000 | Batsman |
| Kevin Pietersen | England | DC | $400,000 | $650,000 | Batsman |
| Dirk Nannes | Australia | RCB | $200,000 | $650,000 | Bowler |
| Daniel Vettori | New Zealand | RCB | $400,000 | $550,000 | Bowler |
| Pragyan Ojha | India | DC | $200,000 | $500,000 | Bowler |
| Rahul Dravid | India | RR | $400,000 | $500,000 | Batsman |
| Graeme Smith | South Africa | Pune | $400,000 | $500,000 | Batsman |
| RP Singh | India | Kochi | $200,000 | $500,000 | Bowler |
| Manoj Tiwary | India | KKR | $100,000 | $475,000 | Batsman |
| Morne Morkel | South Africa | DD | $100,000 | $475,000 | Bowler |
| Brendon McCullum | New Zealand | Kochi | $400,000 | $475,000 | Wicket-keeper |
| Ishant Sharma | India | DC | $200,000 | $450,000 | Bowler |
| Brad Hodge | Australia | Kochi | $200,000 | $425,000 | Batsman |
| Shakib Al Hasan | Bangladesh | KKR | $200,000 | $425,000 | All-rounder |
| Michael Hussey | Australia | CSK | $200,000 | $425,000 | Batsman |
| VVS Laxman | India | Kochi | $400,000 | $400,000 | Batsman |
| Brett Lee | Australia | KKR | $400,000 | $400,000 | Bowler |
| Stuart Broad | England | Kings XI | $400,000 | $400,000 | All-rounder |
| Shaun Marsh | Australia | Kings XI | $400,000 | $400,000 | Batsman |
| James Hopes | Australia | DD | $200,000 | $350,000 | All-rounder |
| Eoin Morgan | England | KKR | $200,000 | $350,000 | Batsman |
| Ryan Harris | Australia | Kings XI | $200,000 | $325,000 | Bowler |
| Brad Haddin | Australia | KKR | $200,000 | $325,000 | Wicket-keeper |
| Callum Ferguson | Australia | Pune | $200,000 | $300,000 | Batsman |
| Amit Mishra | India | DC | $100,000 | $300,000 | Bowler |
| Aaron Finch | Australia | DD | $100,000 | $300,000 | Batsman |
| Shikhar Dhawan | India | DC | $200,000 | $300,000 | Batsman |
| JP Duminy | South Africa | DC | $200,000 | $300,000 | Batsman |
| Parthiv Patel | India | Kochi | $100,000 | $290,000 | Wicket-keeper |
| Naman Ojha | India | DD | $100,000 | $270,000 | Wicket-keeper |
| Tim Paine | Australia | Pune | $100,000 | $270,000 | Wicket-keeper |
| Paul Collingwood | England | RR | $200,000 | S250,000 | Batsman |
| James Franklin | New Zealand | MI | $100,000 | $200,000 | All-rounder |
| Steven Smith | Australia | Kochi | $200,000 | $200,000 | All-rounder |
| Dwayne Bravo | West Indies | CSK | $200,000 | $200,000 | All-rounder |
| David Jacobs | South Africa | MI | $20,000 | $190,000 | Wicket-keeper |
| Ramesh Powar | India | Kochi | $100,000 | $180,000 | Bowler |
| Nathan McCullum | New Zealand | Pune | $100,000 | $100,000 | Bowler |
| Wriddhiman Saha | India | CSK | $100,000 | $100,000 | Wicket-keeper |
| Unsold Players | |||||
| Tamim Iqbal | Bangladesh | $100,000 | Unsold | Batsman | |
| Kapugedera | Sri Lanka | $100,000 | Unsold | Batsman | |
| Murali Kartik | India | $200,000 | Unsold | Bowler | |
| Ajantha Mendis | Sri Lanka | $200,000 | Unsold | Bowler | |
| Graeme Swann | England | $400,000 | Unsold | Bowler | |
| James Anderson | England | $400,000 | Unsold | Bowler | |
| Dilhara Fernando | Sri Lanka | $100,000 | Unsold | Bowler | |
| Luke Wright | England | $400,000 | Unsold | All-rounder | |
| Mark Boucher | South Africa | $200,000 | Unsold | Wicket-keeper | |
| Matt Prior | England | $200,000 | Unsold | Wicket-keeper | |
| Graham Manou | Australia | $50,000 | Unsold | Wicket-keeper | |
| Brian Lara | West Indies | $400,000 | Unsold | Batsman | |
| Herschelle Gibbs | South Africa | $200,000 | Unsold | Batsman | |
| Jesse Ryder | New Zealand | $100,000 | Unsold | Batsman | |
| Sourav Ganguly | India | $400,000 | Unsold | Batsman | |
| Chris Gayle | West Indies | $400,000 | Unsold | Batsman |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.