R Vinay Kumar joins the IPL millionaires club. Formerly with Kochi, he will now go to Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Sunil Narine of Trinidad and Tobago was the big surprise pick of the bowlers' segment of the IPL auction. Deccan Chargers, Kolkata Knight Riders, Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals got into a bidding war for the off-spinner, before Mumbai sealed the deal with a USD 700,000 bid.
Harbhajan Singh, who is on the Mumbai table today, said they were keen to get Narine on board after his prolific showing in the Champions League.
RP Singh has also gone to Mumbai [is that the Rhiti connection at work?], as has and Sreesanth will make the long journey from Kochi to Rajasthan Royals.
Ramesh Powar has started to trend on Twitter and he's been taken by his first IPL team, Kings XI Punjab. It's been a good day so far from players from the defunct Kochi side.
Million Dollar Baby: Ravindra Jadeja
Ravindra Jadeja has been the biggest buy at the 2012 IPL player auctions so far. In a two-way tie between Chennai Super Kings and Deccan Chargers, Jadeja received USD 2 million and the tie was won by Chennai for an undisclosed sum.
Three of Jadeja’s team-mates from the now defunct Kochi franchise, Parthiv Patel, Mahela Jayawardene and Muttiah Muralitharan found takers. Jayawardene went to Delhi Daredevils was USD 1.4 million while Muralitharan was taken by Royal Challengers Bangalore for USD 220,000, with just a 20,000-dollar improvement over his base price. Parthiv was bought by Deccan Chargers at USD 650,000.
Kolkata Knight Riders made a big dash to buy Brendon McCullum, their former captain, and eventually took him for USD 900,000.
Marquee players from England, Australia, South Africa and Bangladesh remained unsold. Not surprisingly, there were no takers for VVS Laxman, who had put himself up for auction at a base price of USD 400,000.
“Laxman has been a great player for India and Deccan, but we’re looking for a younger brand of players,” said Darren Lehmann, the team coach.
“It’s a commercial decision taken with their own views in mind,” IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla said, explaining the teams’ decision to not buy Laxman.
Top picks at 12.30 pm:
Inspired England choke South Africa
Champions Trophy: Hosts thrash South Africa by seven wickets at The Oval. More »
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