Indian Premier League
The IPL is back and back with a bang! The season 4 got underway with the auction and as many as 88 players went under the hammer on Day 1 on whom $52.8 million were spent, 15 millionaires were created and 16 players failed to attract a bid.
Gautam Gambhir was the first player up for grabs and he turned out to be the most expensive buy as Kolkata Knight Riders bought him for $2.4 million. The Pathan household would have been one happy family at the end of the day as the brothers fetched a combined total of $4 million – Yusuf bought for $2.1 million by Kolkata while Irfan cost Delhi $1.9 million. Among the other expensive buys were Robin Uthappa for $2.1 million and Rohit Sharma for $2 million by the Pune Warriors and Mumbai Indians respectively. The most expensive overseas players were Mahela Jayawardene who was bought for $1.5 million by Kochi, Dave Hussey who was worth $1.4 million to Kings XI Punjab and Dale Steyn who was roped in by the Deccan Chargers for $1.2 million. In the surprises of the day, big names like Sourav Ganguly, Chris Gayle and Brian Lara failed to find any buyers.
The day started with Kolkata Knightriders targeting the top notch players as they snapped up Gambhir and Yusuf Pathan and also Jacques Kallis by lunch while the Royal Challengers got good deals for Zaheer Khan, AB de Villiers and Tillekratne Dilshan. Deccan Chargers were probably the smartest buyers of the day snapping up Kevin Pietersen, Kumara Sangakkara and J. P. Duminy for $1.65 million. Chennai looked to retain most of their former players buying back Ashwin, Badrinath, Bollinger and Mike Hussey although they lost Muralitharan to Kochi. Amongst the others, Yuvraj were signed up by Pune while old warhorses Dravid and Laxman went to Rajasthan and Kochi respectively.
The English and their mysteries with the IPL continued as members of the victorious Ashes team Graeme Swann, James Anderson and Matt Prior were left without a team while Collingwood, Eoin Morgan and Stuart Broad could only fetch a combined total of $1 million. There were other inexplicable bids like Ravindra Jadeja and Piyush Chawla going for $950,000 and $900,000 respectively while the man with the most wickets in the IPL Pragyan Ojha could only command a price of $500,000.
Like its unpredictable T20 format, the IPL continued to spring surprises and with 71 more players up for auction, there’s no better time to be a cricketing fanatic.
Tags: Cricket, Gautam Gambhir, Indian Premier League, IPL, IPL 2011, IPL 4, IPL Auction, IPL Auctions
