Click to play videoNew Delhi: Cricket enters uncharted territory on Wednesday in an important phase of the multi-million dollar DLF Indian Premier League as top cricketers go under the hammer in an open auction of players among the eight franchise teams.
Apart from the top Indian cricketers, some top international cricket stars too are up for grabs. They include Australian Test and One-Day skipper Ricky Ponting, highest Test wicket-taker Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka and controversial Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar.
There will also be big bargain for retired Australian greats Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath and South Africa's Shaun Pollock, apart from retiring Australian wicketkeeper/ batsman Adam Gilchrist.
In all, 13 Australians, 11 South Africans, nine Sri Lankans, eight Pakistanis, six New Zealanders, three West Indians, two Bangladeshis, one Zimbabwean and 33 Indian players are up for auction.
PLAYERS IN DIFFERENT CATEGORIES |
| A - Big names like Dhoni, McGrath and Warne |
| B - Level two players like Stephen Fleming and Shahid Afridi |
| C - Wicketkeeper-batsmen like Mark Boucher and Dinesh Karthik |
| D - All-rounders like Shaun Pollock and Irfan Pathan |
| E - Batsmen like Langer, Uthappa and Sarwan |
| F - Bowlers like Vaas, Bracken and Malinga |
| G - Unavailable in 2008 like Ponting, Lee and Hayden |
The auction will begin at a five-star hotel in Mumbai at 1100 hrs IST on Wednesday and the process may go on for 10 to 12 hours.
BASE PRICE OF TOP PLAYERS | ||
| Mahendra Singh Dhoni | $400,000 | Rs 1.60 cr |
| Anil Kumble and Harbhajan | $250,000 | Rs 1 cr |
| S Sreesanth, Zaheer Khan, Rudra Pratap Singh, Robin Uthappa, Murali Kartik and Dinesh Karthik | $200,000 | Rs 80 lakh |
| Irfan Pathan | $175,000 | Rs 70 lakh |
| Rohit Sharma | $150,000 | Rs 60 lakh |
| Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina and Yousuf Pathan | $125,000 | Rs 50 lakh |
| Joginder Sharma | $100,000 - $125,000 | Rs 40-50 lakh |
| Munaf Patel and Ishant Sharma | $100,000 | Rs 40 lakh |
| Shane Warne | $390,000 | Rs 1.56 cr |
| Glenn McGrath | $340,000 | Rs 1.36 cr |
| Jason Gillespie | $175,000 | Rs 70 lakh |
| Matthew Hayden | $125,000 | Rs 50 lakh |
| Shoaib Malik | $292,500 | Rs 1.17 cr |
| Stephen Fleming | $340,000 | Rs 1.36 cr |
| Sanath Jayasurya, Kumar Sangakkara, Muralitharan, M Jayawardene | $242,500 | Rs 97 lakh |
| Daniel Vittori | $217,500 | Rs 87 lakh |
| Graeme Smith, Herschelle Gibbs | $220,000 | Rs 88 lakh |
| Jacques Kallis | $195,000 | Rs 78 lakh |
| Mark Boucher | $175,000 | Rs 70 lakh |
| Scott Styris | $145,000 | Rs 58 lakh |
While the teams are looking at getting the right balance, the more interesting part will be to see who sells for how much. For, the eight city-specific franchises have already pumped in big money into the event by paying a total of $723.3 million just for taking part in the April 18-June 1 Twenty20 League.
For once, the IPL is going to change the rules of the game forever. In fact, this is being seen as the biggest revolution in cricket since the Kerry Packer era.
The Indian Premier League, a Twenty20 tournament, was set up by the Board of control for Cricket in India (BCCI) last September soon after the Essel Group launched the Indian Cricket League. Big names bid big money to own the eight teams.
But big money may not do the trick at the player auction. For, the teams have a $5 million or Rs 20 crore cap on spending. So, money apart, a fair bit of strategising will go into the bidding process in order for a team to get the right mix of players.
Now, these big names go shopping once again, this time to get the best of world's cricketing talent. As many as 80 cricketers will be up for auction on Wednesday and will go to the teams that bid the highest price for them.
And with big money already flowing into the game, each bid is expected to be quite a bouncer.
For each player, the bidding will start at the 'base player fee', which has already been fixed for each player. The minimum bid has to be from $100,000.
The likes of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Adam Gilchrist or Shane Warne have the highest base price of $400,000 or Rs 1.6 crores and are expected to breach the $1 million mark during bidding.
The BCCI has also named five 'Icon Players', who will not be up for sale.
They can play for their respective cities and will be paid 15 per cent more than the highest auctioned player.
They include Sourav Ganguly (Kolkata), Yuvraj Singh (Mohali/Chandigarh), Virender Sehwag (Delhi), Rahul Dravid (Bangalore) and Sachin Tendulkar (Mumbai).
WHO BOUGHT WHICH TEAM | ||
Bangalore Team | Vijay Mallya | $111.6 million |
| Mumbai Team | Mukesh Ambani | $111.9 million |
| Kolkata Team | Shah Rukh Khan | $75.09 million |
| Delhi Team | GMR | $ 84 million |
| Chennai Team | India Cement | $91 million |
| Mohali Team | Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia | $76 million |
| Jaipur team | Emerging Media | $67 million |
| Hyderabad team | Deccan Chronicle | $107.1 million |
As for international players, a maximum of eight international players can be part of a squad, but only four of them can be part of the actual playing 11.
Each team will have a minimum of 16 players. The contract with the players will be for a fixed term of three years.
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