Non-marquee Indian players, especially bowlers, dominated the second day of auction for the fourth edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) as franchisees battled with each other by offering high premiums over their base price.
Unlike the first day (Saturday) when popular players were auctioned, no one could touch the one million-dollar-mark today. At the end of the day, little-known Australian pacer Daniel Christian bagged the highest price tag at $900,000 — 18 times more than his base price of $50,000 — as he moved to Deccan Chargers, Hyderabad.
“We believe Christian is a good buy. He is a good fast bowler and a decent batsman. He is also a brilliant fielder,” Deccan Chargers’ owner Gayathri Reddy said.
Among the Indians who were in the spotlight today was pace bowler Umesh Yadav, who was retained by Delhi Daredevils at $750,000 — 15 times more than his base price of $50,000 — despite playing only a few IPL matches. Similarly, Munaf Patel was bought by Mumbai Indians for $700,000. Lakshmipathy Balaji, Manpreet Gony and Ashok Dinda were the other Indian bowlers who were picked up at huge premiums.
Delhi Daredevils settled for batsman Venugopal Rao at $700,000 who became the third-priciest player to go under the hammer today along with Patel.
The domination of Indian players was again reflected in the fact that as many as nine of the top 12 players in terms of their price tags were from India.
Despite a rebid of 28 players chosen by the franchisees, some big names like Sourav Ganguly, Hershelle Gibbs Chris Gayle, Brian Lara and Sanath Jayasuriya remained unsold.
Only India spinner Murali Karthik went up for rebid with Pune picking him up at $400,000, which was double his base price.
A total of 137 players were bought from a list of 350 players on the block.
Experts say the huge hike in prices, especially of Indian players, is primarily because of their limited availability. Most franchisees say they need six to eight core Indian players. However, with only 48 Indian players on the block, the total money in the franchisees’ ‘treasury’ has nearly doubled, it was clear that price tags would go up. “In the previous IPL when there were eight teams, there was a cap of $6 million per team. However, with two new teams — Kochi and Pune — being added this year, the cap per team has gone up to $9 million,” says former India opener Arun Lal.
| TOP SCORERS ON DAY 2 | ||||
| Player | Base price | Highest bid | Appreciation over base price | Team |
| Daniel Christian | 50,000 | 900,000 | 18 times | Deccan Chargers |
| Umesh Yadav | 50,000 | 750,000 | 15 times | Delhi Daredevils |
| Venugopal Rao | 100,000 | 700,000 | 7 times | Delhi Daredevils |
| Munaf Patel | 100,000 | 700,000 | 7 times | Mumbai Indians |
| Lakshmipathy Balaji | 100,000 | 500,000 | 5 times | Kolkata Knight Riders |
| Vinay Kumar | 100,000 | 475,000 | Around 5 times | Kochi |
| Murali Karthik | 200,000 | 400,000 | 2 times | Pune |
| Ashok Dinda | 100,000 | 375,000 | Around 4 times | Delhi Daredevils |
| Shaun Tait | 300,000 | 300,000 | - | Rajasthan Royals |
| Mitchell Marsh | 100,000 | 290,000 | Around 3 times | Pune |
| Manpreet Gony | 50,000 | 290,000 | Around 6 times | Deccan Chargers |
| Abhimanyu Mithun | 100,000 | 260,000 | Over twice | Royal Challengers |
| Figures in $ | ||||
Promoter of Royal Challengers Bangalore, Vijay Mallya, said the team owners had agreed to the cap of $9 million to provide a level playing field to all teams. “I remember, we started auctioning with a cap of $5 million in the first IPL. This time, all team owners have agreed to the sum of $9 million so that every one can get a level playing field in the auction.”
Devraj Sanyal, CEO of Percept Sports and Entertainment, said: “Due to the entry of two new franchises, a majority of the players went under the hammer this season. The total purse size of the franchisees stood at $90 million and with owners battling it out to form their dream teams, bid prices reached record heights. The composition of each team stands strong now.”
The franchisees together still have around 9.4 million unused, which they can use for buying uncapped and under-19 players.
