Mumbai, Feb 20 (IANS) Mahendra Singh Dhoni, captain of the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship winners, was the most expensive cricketer to be bought at $1.5 million at the historic Indian Premier League (IPL) auction here Wednesday.
The name of the dashing Dhoni, who is away in Australia leading India in the Commonwealth Bank Triangular Series, came under the hammer as his city Ranchi is not among the eight franchise cities bidding for players in the Twenty20 IPL, beginning April 18.
By the end of the sixth of eight rounds Wednesday, Andrew Symonds was the second most expensive player, the Deccan Chronicle Hyderabad team picking the Australian all-rounder for $1.35 million. Sri Lankan dasher Sanath Jayasuriya narrowly missed touching the million-dollar-mark as he got Mukesh Ambani’s nod to play for Mumbai at $975,000.
There were two other players in the $900,000-plus bracket – India’s Irfan Pathan and South African Jacques Kallis. Pathan, a clean hitter with bat besides being a potent swing bowler, was snatched by Mohali for $925,000. Proteas all-rounder Kallis was bought by Bangalore for $900,000.
On the other side of the spectrum, quite surprisingly retired Australian pace spearhead Glenn McGrath and reliable Pakistani batsman Yousuf Youhana were not picked by any team. They were put in the reserve pool and will be presented before the bidders at the end of all the auction rounds.
Two other players fancied by the bidders were Harbhajan Singh, the India off-spinner who was snared by Mumbai for $850,000, apparently for his all-round capabilities, and left-handed West Indian opener Chris Gayle who went to Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata team for $800,000.
There are five icon players – Sachin Tendulkar (Mumbai), Rahul Dravid (Bangalore), Sourav Ganguly (Kolkata), Yuvraj Singh (Mohali) and Virender Sehwag (Delhi) – who will automatically play for their teams and will not be put up for auction. They will get 15 percent more money than the highest paid player of their teams.
With two more rounds to go, the race for the rest of the players who have signed up for the IPL now enters the final stretch. Each franchisee will be allowed to spend a minimum of $3.3 million and a maximum of $5 million for buying players.
While each team will be allowed to register a maximum of eight foreign players, only four will be able to play in the XI during any match. The XII, including the 12th man to be named for each match, will comprise four of the BCCI-contracted players, four Ranji Trophy players and four under-22 players besides the four overseas players.
All eight franchises, which have spent more than $718 million for over 80 international players, were at the auction. They are Mukesh Ambani (Mumbai), Vijay Mallya (Bangalore), Shah Rukh Khan (Kolkata), Preity Zinta (Mohali), Emerging Media (Jaipur), Deccan Chronicle (Hyderabad), India Cements (Chennai) and GMR Group (Delhi).
It will be a 44-day tournament this year. The first game will be played under the floodlights at Bangalore’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium April 18 with Bangalore taking on Kolkata.
The bidders and their franchise-buying price:
1. Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance for Mumbai team ($111.9 million)
2. Deccan Chronicle for Hyderabad ($107.01 million)
3. Vijay Mallya’s UB Group for Bangalore ($106 million)
4. India Cements for Chennai ($91 million)
5. GMR Holdings for Delhi ($84 million)
6. Consortium led by Preity Zinta for Mohali ($76 million)
7. Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies (with Juhi Chawla and Jay Mehta) for Kolkata ($75.09 million)
8. Emerging Media, a consortium including Manoj Badale of England, Lachlan Murdoch and others for Jaipur ($67 million)
Players Price (in $) Buyer
1 Mahendra Dhoni (Ind) 1.5 million Chennai Super Kings
2 Adam Gilchrist (Aus) 700,000 Hyderabad
3 Shane Warne (Aus) 450,000 Jaipur
4 Muttiah Muralitharan (SL) 600,000 Chennai Super Kings
5 Mahela Jayawardene (SL) 475,000 Mohali
6 Kumar Sangakkara (SL) 700,000 Mohali
7 Shoaib Akhtar (Pak) 425,000 Kolkata
8 Anil Kumble (Ind) 500,000 Bangalore
9 Harbhajan Singh (Ind) 850,000 Mumbai
10 Sanath Jayasuriya (SL) 975,000 Mumbai
11 Ricky Ponting (Aus) 400,000 Kolkata
12 Andrew Symonds (Aus) 1.35 million Hyderabad
13 Matthew Hayden (Aus) 375,000 Chennai Super Kings
14 Jacob Oram (NZ) 675,000 Chennai Super Kings
15 Stephen Fleming (NZ) 350,000 Chennai Super Kings
16 Graeme Smith (SA) 475,000 Jaipur
17 Herschelle Gibbs (SA) 575,000 Hyderabad
18 Chris Gayle (WI) 800,000 Kolkata
19 Shoaib Malik (Pak) 500,000 Delhi Daredevils
20 Shahid Afridi (Pak) 675,000 Hyderabad
21 Younis Khan (Pak) 225,000 Jaipur
22 Mohammed Asif (Pak) 650,000 Delhi Daredevils
23 Jacques Kallis (SA) 900,000 Bangalore
24 Zaheer Khan (Ind) 400,000 Bangalore
25 Sreesath (Ind) 625,000 Mohali
26 Ajit Agarkar (Ind) 350,000 Kolkata
27 Shaun Pollock (SA) 550,000 Mumbai
28 Irfan Pathan (Pak) 925,000 Mohali
29 Scott Styris (NZ) 175,000 Hyderabad
30 Farveez Maharoof (SL) 225,000 Delhi Daredevils
31 Tillakaratne Dilshan (SL) 250,000 Delhi Daredevils
32 Cameron White (Aus) 500,000 Bangalore
33 Yousuf Pathan (Ind) 475,000 Jaipur
34 Joginder Sharma (Ind) 225,000 Chennai
35 Dinesh Karthik (Ind) 525,000 Delhi Daredevils
36 Daniel Vettori (NZ) 625,000 Delhi Daredevils
37 Brendon McCullum (NZ) 700,000 Kolkata
38 Brett Lee (Aus) 900,000 Mohali
39 Mark Boucher (SA) 450,000 Bangalore
40 Parthiv Patel (Ind) 325,000 Chennai Super Kings
41 Albie Morkel (SA) 650,000 Chennai Super Kings
42 Kamran Akmal (Pak) 150,000 Jaipur