Blootics

Dhoni and Symonds top $1m mark in IPL auction. India one-day captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Australian Andrew Symonds crossed the million-dollar mark as the world’s top cricketers were auctioned off for the Twenty20 Indian Premier League (IPL). Chennai bought Dhoni for $1.5 million, which was nearly four times the Indian’s base price of $400,000 in the opening round of the novel sell-off held before the lucrative 44-day tournament’s debut in April.

All-rounder Symonds was a close second after going for $1.35 million to the Hyderabad team. Team-mates Brett Lee was bought by Mohali for $900,000 and Ricky Ponting by Kolkata for $400,000. Eight franchise owners, including corporate tycoons and Bollywood actors, were bidding for 77 cricketers in a

pioneering process that some observers believe will change the face of the game. “It’s a landmark day. I have not seen anything like this before. It has been amazing,” said IPL governing council member Inderjit Singh Bindra.

STAR PLAYERS AND THEIR PRICE TAGS

Jaipur: S Warne ($450,000), G Smith $475,000), Y Khan ($225,000), K Akmal ($150,000), Y Pathan ($475,000), M Kaif ($675,000), M Patel ($275,000), J Langer ($200,000)

Chennai: MS Dhoni ($1.5m), M Muralitharan ($600,000), M Hayden ($375,000), J Oram ($675,000), S Fleming ($350,000), P Patel ($325,000), J Sharma ($225,000), AMorkel ($675,000), S Raina ($650,000), M Ntini ($200,000), M Hussey ($350,000)

Mumbai: S Tendulkar (icon), S Jayasuriya ($975,000), H Singh ($850,000), S Pollock ($550,000), R Uthappa ($800,000), L Malinga ($350,000), D Fernando ($150,000), L Bosman ($175,000)

Bangalore: R Dravid (icon), A Kumble ($500,000), J Kallis ($900,000), Z Khan ($450,000), M Boucher ($450,000), C White ($500,000), W Jaffer ($150,000), D Steyn ($325,000), N Bracken ($325,000), S Chanderpaul ($200,000).

Hyderabad: A Gilchrist ($700,000), A Symonds ($1.35m), H Gibbs ($575,000), S Afridi ($675,000), S Styris ($175,000), VVS Laxman ($375,000), R Sharma ($750,000), C Silva ($100,000), RP Singh ($875,000), C Vaas ($200,000), N Zoysa ($110,000).

Mohali: Y Singh (icon), M Jayawardene ($475,000), K Sangakkara ($700,000), B Lee ($900,000), S S ($625,000), I Pathan ($925,000), R Powar ($170,000), P Chawla ($400,000), S Katich ($200,000), R Sarwan ($225,000).

Kolkata: S Ganguly (icon), S Akhtar ($425,000), R Ponting ($400,000), B McCullum ($700,000), C Gayle ($800,000), A Agarkar ($330,000), D Hussey ($675,000), I Sharma ($950,000), M Kartik ($425,000), U Gul ($150,000), T Taibu ($125,000).

Delhi: V Sehwag (icon), D Vettori ($625,000), S Malik ($500,000), M Asif ($650,000), AB de Villiers ($300,000), D Karthik ($525,000), F Maharoof ($225,000), T Dilshan ($250,000), M Tiwary ($675,000), G Gambhir ($725,000), Glenn McGrath ($350,000).

The second round of Indian Premier League (IPL) players’ auction has also been completed successfully at Nariman Point here today. The marquee players of set B - Harbhajan Singh (850,000 dollars) and Sanath Jayasuriya (975,000 dollars) were bagged by Mukesh Ambani’s Mumabi team, while Vijay Mallya’s Bangalore and Preity Zinta’s Mohali have successfully bid for Anil Kumble (500,000 dollars) and Kumar Sangakkara (700,000 dollars) respectively. Earlier in set A bid, Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan has successfully bid Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar for his Kolkata team for 425,000 dollars while Chennai bought Team India ODI skipper MS Dhoni at a price tag of 1.5 million dollars.

Few interesting links about IPL:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_foreign_IPL_players
http://churumuri.wordpress.com/2008/02/20/7-reasons-ipl-player-auction-is-like-prostitution/
Australia spin wizard Shane Warne (450,000 dollars) to play for Jaipur while his former team-mate wicketkeeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist (700,000 dollars) can be seen playing for Hyderabad. Preity Zinta’s Mohali team bought, Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene for 475,000 dollars and world’s leading Test wicket-taker Muttiah Muralidaran was bought by Chennai for 600,000 dollars. A total of 77 players, both Indian and foreigners, are under the hammer. The IPL Governing Council has decided that not more than five million dollars and not less than 3.3 million dollars can be bid for each lot of international players by each franchise. The contract with the player will be for a fixed term of three years and each franchise can have a maximum of two centrally contracted Australian 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. In the tournament, based on Twenty20 matches, 59 matches will be played in 44 days starting April 18.