By Fakir Hassen, IANS
Johannesburg : Cricket South Africa chief executive Gerald Majola has said he was “pleasantly surprised” at the $900,000 bid for all-rounder Jacques Kallis to play in three seasons of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Somewhat ironically, Kallis was left out of the South African squad for the inaugural ICC Twenty20 World Tournament last year, sparking a controversy that almost saw him quitting the side.
But Majola cautioned that people should not read too much into the fact that Kallis and eight other South African players had attracted huge offers from the franchisees in the IPL. “These amounts are the values that are linked to (big) names in India.”
Majola also advised the players who had secured contracts to invest wisely.
“I’m not sure how their earnings will be taxed, but whatever remains after that, is for the player’s pockets. I don’t mind if players take what comes to them when they are riding the crest of a wave, as long as they just invest it properly.”
Kallis, whose bid Wednesday was lower only than that of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Andrew Symonds and Sanath Jayasuriya, will play for Bangalore in the inaugural tournament in April.
Kallis said he was looking forward to playing with Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble in the team because he usually did not get a chance to play with them.
Among the other South Africans in the IPL are current captain Graeme Smith, who will play for Jaipur, while former captain Shaun Pollock, who retired from the team recently, will join Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya in Mumbai.