Money spoke many shades on Saturday. It signalled the continuing dream run of Ravindra Jadeja and also highlighted the desperate urge of the Sahara Group and by extension, its team Pune Warriors, to reveal a bigger purse for the Indian Premier League players' auction.
In the days leading to the auction here at the ITC Royal Gardenia Hotel, the IPL committee had turned down the Warriors' request to increase its auction purse beyond the stipulated $2 million. A miffed Sahara Group and its subsidiary Pune Warriors pulled out of the auction and that remained the sub-text through the day.
Even when a triumphant Chennai Super Kings owner Gurunath Meiyappan walked in for a brief press conference after snapping up Jadeja for $2 million, questions on Sahara's exit were volleyed towards the IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla and CEO Sundar Raman.
Full circle
The Sahara-effect faded slowly and for Jadeja, who made a comeback to the Indian squad during the One-Day Internationals in England, the wheel has come a full circle. Banned from the IPL during its third edition due to a contractual dispute, Jadeja is now the lodestone for franchises.
The former Rajasthan Royals player, who was picked up by Kochi Tuskers Kerala last year for $950,000, lived up to his blue-chip buzz with Super Kings and the Chargers getting in to a bidding stalemate after exhausting their purse of $2 million each. In the tie-breaker, the Chennai team pipped the Chargers by an undisclosed sum.
Sri Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene proved to be the next biggie and at $1.4 million, he is a valued buy for the Delhi Daredevils.
A brief ‘son-of-the-soil' syndrome was also on view as Royal Challengers Bangalore kept mum for a while before picking up R. Vinay Kumar at $1 million.
Just like Vinay, who returned to his home team after a year's stint with Kochi Tuskers Kerala, New Zealander Brendon McCullum too found his way back to Kolkata Knight Riders at $900,000.
Surprise twist
The Knight Riders also offered the surprise twist to the auction as the Kolkata outfit went no-holds barred in getting the West Indies off-spinner Sunil Narine at $700,000 while edging past Mumbai Indians. Parthiv Patel and Thisara Perera, who went for $650,000 each to Deccan Chargers and Mumbai Indians respectively, were the day's other big picks.
Muttiah Muralitharan meanwhile helped the ‘Veterans Club' flag to fly a bit as he managed $220,000 from Royal Challengers Bangalore while V.V.S. Laxman and Mark Boucher found no takers.
Even England's lead pair of Graeme Swann and James Anderson and Australian spearhead Peter Siddle suffered the cold shoulder as owners guardedly factored in their wallets as well as the international cricket calendar during the summer months.
Former Pakistan player and current British citizen Azhar Mahmood found an eager buyer in King's XI Punjab ($200,000) and the West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell added zest to the post-lunch proceedings. Russell was selected by Delhi Daredevils for $450,000.
Ironically, Ireland's Kevin O'Brien, who was rejected in the morning rounds, was recalled in the afternoon session and still found no takers. A fate that also fell on Swann, the last player who was mentioned by auctioneer Richard Madley.
Injured seamer S. Sreesanth was pocketed at his base price of $400,000 by the Rajasthan Royals. Later Sundar Raman said: “All the franchises are aware of a player's fitness status and in case a player is unavailable for the entire season then they can exercise the player-replacement clause.”
The list of players sold in the auction (read as name, nationality, price and base price):
Chennai Super Kings: Ravindra Jadeja (Ind), $2 million, 100,000.
Deccan Chargers : Parthiv Patel (Ind), 650,000, 200,000; Daniel Harris (Aus), 70,000, 50,000; Darren Bravo (WI), 100,000, 100,000.
Delhi Daredevils: Mahela Jayawardene (SL), $1.4 million, $300,000; Andre Russell (WI), $450,000, $50,000; Doug Bracewell (NZ), 50,000, 50,000.
Kolkata Knight Riders : Brendon McCullum (NZ), 900,000, 400,000; Sunil Narine (WI), 700,000, 50,000; Marchant deLange (SA), 50,000, 50,000.
King's XI Punjab: Ramesh Powar (Ind), 160,000, 100,000; James Faulkner (Aus), 190,000, 100,000; Azhar Mahmood (Eng), 200,000, 100,000.
Mumbai Indians: Herschelle Gibbs (SA), 50,000, 50,000; Mitchell Johnson (Aus), 300,000, 300,000; R.P. Singh (Ind), 600,000, 200,000; Robin Peterson (SA), 100,000, 100,000; Thisara Perera (SL), 650,000, 50,000.
Rajasthan Royals: Brad Hodge (Aus), 475,000, 200,000; Dinesh Chandimal (SL), 50,000, 50,000; S. Sreesanth (Ind), 400,000, 400,000; Brad Hogg (Aus), 180,000, 100,000; Kevon Cooper (WI), 50,000, 50,000.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Muttiah Muralitharan (SL), 220,000, 200,000; Vinay Kumar (Ind), $1 million, 100,000.
*The report has been corrected for a factual error
