IPL teams break the bank as star cricketers go under the hammer

At Rs 14 cr, Royal Challengers Bangalore shell out a princely sum for Yuvraj

Southpaw Yuvraj Singh emerged the biggest catch of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2014 player auction as he was snapped up for a staggering Rs 14 crore in Bangalore on Wednesday. Yuvraj, who had a base price of Rs 2 crore, was grabbed after a tough contest by the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).

As always, the auction did not fail to throw up its fair share of surprises. Batsman Murali Vijay was picked up for Rs 5 crore, soon after which Sri Lankan star Mahela Jayawardene found no takers and went unsold.

Kevin Pietersen, whose England career appears to have ended unceremoniously after the Ashes debacle Down Under, was bought back by his last season’s team Delhi Daredevils for Rs 9 crore. If that was an impressive amount, wicketkeeper batsman Dinesh Karthik cost the Delhi franchise even more, at Rs 12.5 crore.

RCB owner Vijay Mallya, sporting a flashy new hairdo, presented his philosophical take to the press on matters cricketing and mundane after having splurged Rs 14 crore on a single player. RCB already have some formidable players in Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and

A B De Villiers. The Daredevils had not retained any of their earlier players and so had the highest war chest of Rs 60 crore.

Other players who fetched hefty amounts were Mitchell Johnson at Rs 6.5 crore (Kings XI Punjab), Glenn Maxwell at Rs 6 crore (Kings XI Punjab), David Warner at Rs 5.5 crore (Sunrisers Hyderabad), Robin Uthappa at Rs 5 crore (Kolkata Knight Riders) and Corey Anderson at Rs 4.5 crore (Mumbai Indians).

 

Apart from Jayawardene, other big-name players who went unsold were Brett Lee, Ross Taylor, David Hussey, Angelo Mathews and Murali Karthik. Confusion arose when Rajashthan Royals claimed to have placed a higher bid for Nathan Coulter-Nile while the auctioneer declared him sold to Delhi Daredevils. Rahul Dravid’s clean image came to the rescue when the auctioneer said he trusted Dravid that the Royals had raised the bid before the hammer came down. Similar scenes had been witnessed earlier in the day when RCB seemed to have bought Yuvraj for Rs 10 crore but Kolkata Knight Riders representatives claimed to have raised the bid amount by Rs 25 lakh. A subsequent bidding war that ensued took Yuvraj’s price to Rs 14 crore. RCB owner Mallya later lodged an official complaint with the IPL governing council, saying, “The hammer did go down at Rs 10 crore. Normally, my understanding is that when the hammer falls down, that’s final.”

The cloud of the Mudgal committee report on betting and match-fixing did not seem to have impacted the auction or deterred celebrity presence. Apart from PepsiCo India boss D Shivakumar, who watched proceedings, actor Ranbir Kapoor added glamour to the event. On the Mudgal committee report, Mallya said, “It happens in every sport. We would not have been here if we were not excited about the IPL. It is unfortunate that there are such scams. But, I think the core of the IPL is sound.”

Bollywood actress and Kings XI Punjab co-owner Preity Zinta agreed and said the controversy did not worry her as she expected the truth would come out. The IPL chairman Ranjib Biswal dismissed rumours about the Mudgal Committee report naming six capped players and added that the matter is in the Supreme Court and will take a view on it on March 7. Biswal said IPL authorities are waiting for the dates of Lok Sabha elections to be announced before taking any decision on finalising thuis year's IPL venues. "If the dates are clashing with IPL matches, we will look at some venues outside India," he added.

Sr No	Team	Funds at start of Auction (cr)	Funds Left at end of  Day 1 (cr)	Right to Match Remaining	Players retained before auction	Total Players in team
1	CSK	21	2.9	0	5	13
2	DD	60	8.6	2	0	13
3	KXIP	43.5	14.2	1	2	12
4	KKR	38	9 cr	0	2	10
5	MI	22.5	5.15	0	5	10
6	RR	22.5	12.10	1	5	11
7	RCB	30.5	1.80	1	3	12
8	SH	38	8.4	0	2	13