By IANS
Mumbai : Australians seem to be the big flavour in the Indian Premier League (IPL) despite all the controversies in recent times. Andrew Symonds, the man at the centre of the Sydney Test controversy last month, was the second player after Indian one-day captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni to cost more than one million dollars at Wednesday’s player auction.
Symonds was bought by Hyderabad for $1.35m, while Dhoni was picked up by Chennai for $1.5 million. In comparison, Harbhajan Singh, whose exchanges with Symonds attracted so much attention, went to Mumbai for somewhat less, at $850,000.
Just missing out on the million-dollar mark was the explosive Sri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya, who was bagged by Mumbai for $975,000.
Delhi, who managed to get Virender Sehwag into the icon category, began the opening round in a conservative manner, picking only Daniel Vettori, the Kiwi spinner, for $625,000.
That was way above what Shane Warne went for, at $450,000 to Jaipur.
The picks were as follows:
Squads as of now:
Jaipur: Shane Warne ($450,000)
Chennai: Mahendra Singh Dhoni ($1.5 million), Muttiah Muralitharan ($ 600,00), Matthew Hayden ($ 375,000), Jacob Oram ($ 675,000)
Mumbai: Sachin Tendulkar (icon, not for auction), Sanath Jayasuriya ($ 975,000), Harbhajan Singh ($ 850,000)
Bangalore: Rahul Dravid (icon), Anil Kumble ($ 500,000)
Hyderabad: Adam Gilchrist ($ 700,000), Andrew Symonds ($ 1.35 million)
Mohali: Yuvraj Singh (icon), Mahela Jayawardene ($ 475,000), Kumar Sangakkara ($ 700,000), Brett Lee ($ 900,000)
Kolkata Sourav Ganguly (icon), Shoaib Akhtar ($425,000), Ricky Ponting ($400,000), Brendon McCullum ($700,000)
Delhi: Virender Sehwag (icon), Daniel Vettori ($ 625,000)
Note: All figures in US dollars