The auction of eight franchisees for players in the fifth season of Indian Premier League (IPL) concluded here in Bangalore with the teams spending around $11 million (around Rs 54 crore) for buying 25 players. The eight teams had a total of around $16.6 million to spend with 144 players to be auctioned including eight Indian players.
The star of the fifth edition of IPL was 23-year old young Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, who was picked by by the Chennai Super Kings for a whopping $2 million (around Rs 9.7 crore). The former Kochi Tusker player's base price was $100,000 and the bid was a tie between Chennai and the Deccan chargers.
According to the tie-breaker clause, both Chennai and Deccan were asked to bid a secret amount and finally Jadeja went to Chennai's armoury after a tough battle. The second player who made big bucks under the hammer was former captain of the Kochi Tuskers Mahela Jayawardena. The Delhi Daredevils bagged the Sri Lankan batsman for $1.4 million (around Rs 6.8 crore).
Among other big gainers in the auction was New Zealand wicketkeeper-batsman and former Kochi Tusker player Brendon McCullum. He was bought for $900,000 by Kolkata Knight Riders. McCullum's base price was $400,000. Another surprise bid for the fifth edition was for the Indian wicket keeper Parthiv Patel. The former Chennai Super Kings player went to the Deccan's kitty for $650,000, which was high from the base price of $200,000. Australian batsman Brad Hodge was taken by Rajasthan Royals for $475,000 (around Rs 2.3 crore).
Though names of eight Indian players were put under the hammer only six players got buyers. Indian players like VRV Singh and veteran batsman VVS Laxman found no takers in the auction for the fifth edition of the IPL.
As cricket is a game of unexpected events and thrills, the auction for fifth edition also saw thrilling shows. The greatest thriller of the auction was the bid for Sunil Narine, a lesser known West Indies off-spinner.
Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) challenged each other for Narine and KKR made it home by winning the off-spinner for $700,000 (around Rs 3.4 crore). Narine was listed at a low base price of $50,000. Another surprise of the day was the auction of South African veteran Herschelle Gibbs, was sold to Mumbai Indians for a low base price of $ 50,000.
Indian medium pacer R Vinay Kumar emerged as the star in the auction for pace bowlers.
Vinay Kumar was bought for a whopping $ 1 million by Bangalore-based Royal Challengers Bangalore, while RP Singh was sold to Mumbai Indians for $6,00,000 while S Sreesanth was sold to Rajasthan Royals for $4,00,000. The Royal Challengers Bangalore also bought Sri Lankan spin bowler Muttiah Muralitharan for $220,000 (around Rs 1.07 crore).
Apart from Laxman some of the other major players who went unsold includes England's James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara and Matt Prior, West Indies' Ramnaresh Sarwan, Adrian Barath and Darren Bravo and South Africa's Mark Boucher.
