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by Ramola Talwar Badam(February 21, Mumbai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Mahendra Singh Dhoni attracted the highest price of US$1.5 million (euro1.02 million) per season in Wednesday’s player auction for the lucrative new Indian Premier League.
Chennai acquired the services of India limited-overs captain Dhoni, a wicketkeeper-batsman, on a three-year contract to kickstart the Twenty20 IPL competition.
Australia allrounder Andrew Symonds attracted the next highest price - US$1.35 million (euro920,000) from Hyderabad, more than five times his base price where bidding began.
Sri Lanka’s 38-year-old opening batsman and former skipper Sanath Jayasuriya went for US$975,000 (euro661,380) to Mumbai, which also paid US$850,000 (euro576,580) for India offspinner Harbhajan Singh.
South African Jacques Kallis was sold for US$900,000 (euro610,500.61) to Bangalore, with Chris Gayle - the first West Indian to be put up for auction - fetched a bid of US$800,000 from Calcutta.
Australia fast bowler Brett Lee was auctioned to the northern Mohali team for US$900,000 (euro610,500), while his test captain Ricky Ponting went for US$400,000 (euro271,330) to Calcutta, only modestly over his starting price.
The selection of Ponting will make for a potential clash of strong leaders at Calcutta, which is expected to be coached by former Australia coach John Buchanan, and which also has India’s former test captain Sourav Ganguly.
There was also the possibility of leadership friction at Jaipur, where retired Australian legspin great Shane Warne will join South Africa captain Graeme Smith, with the pair having previously engaged in some strong verbal exchanges.
Australia’s retiring wicketkeeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist, Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara and New Zealander Brendon McCullum were auctioned for identical US$700,000 (euro474,834).
Dhoni, Gilchrist and Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan - who went to Chennai - were among the six "marquee players" who were pegged as the biggest drawcards and started the bidding session at a Mumbai hotel, but several players from the next list attracted higher bids.
Pakistan skipper Shoaib Malik will be joined at Delhi by compatriot Mohammad Asif. Pakistan allrounder Shahid Afridi went to Hyderabad and middle-order batsman Younis Khan to Jaipur.
New Zealanders Jacob Oram and Daniel Vettori attracted aggressive bidding before Oram was acquired by Chennai and Vettori by Delhi. Former Black Caps skipper Stephen Fleming was sold to Chennai.
Australian batsman Michael Hussey, Pakistan’s Mohammad Yousuf, retired Australian strike bowler Glenn McGrath and Zimbabwe wicketkeeper Tatenda Taibu did not attract their reserve price and were placed in the reserve pool.
Bids for reserve pool players will be made at the end of the auction.
Yousuf is fighting a legal battle against the rebel Indian Cricket League, which already secured his signing, while McGrath has not played international cricket for more than a year. He had more test wickets than any other fast bowler.
The winning bids were disclosed by Lalit Modi, chairman of the IPL governing body.
"We’re all very excited, this is a tremendous day for world cricket," Modi said before the auction began.
India’s star batsmen Rahul Dravid and Ganguly attended the auction along with billionaire businessman Vijay Mallya, and Bollywood movie stars Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta, who each are part owners in teams.
The IPL reserved four "icon" players from the auction - team captains Ganguly (Calcutta), Yuvraj Singh (Mohali), Sachin Tendulkar (Mumbai) and Dravid (Bangalore) - who are guaranteed 15 percent more than the highest-paid player at their franchise. Virender Sehwag was added to the "icon" list on a request from the Delhi squad ahead of the bidding. (Agencies)
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