Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Ishant Sharma pushes Ganguly over a MILLION...

The IPL got their 6th Millionnaire in Saurav Ganguly who joins Dhoni, Symonds, Sachin, Dravid, and Yuvraj in the elite club. Ganguly achieved the status owing to Kolkata's aggressive bid for India's latest bowling senation Ishant Sharma.

Shahrukh Khan bid aggressively for Ishant Sharma closing his bid at a whopping $950,000! Thats the highest than any Indian fast bowler has got thus far. Irfan Pathan is a 2nd close who bagged a $925,000 deal from Priety Zinta's Mohali. Ponting would not have to worry about facing Ishant now as both of them will turn out for the Kolkata team. Ishant sharing the new ball with Shoaib Akhtar - the could be hell for the opposition batsmen and a treat. RP Singh was the other most valuable Indian pacer who was bagged by Hyderabad for $875,000.

The auction has proved the most beneficial for Indian players as almost all of them have gotten deals in excess of half a million dollars. Gambhir was picked up by his home team Delhi for $725,000 while Mumbai picked up Uthappa for $800,000. Delhi also won the bid for Manoj Tiwari for a high $675,000 while Rohit Sharma ($750,000), Suresha Raina ($650,000), and Mohammad Kaif ($675,000) all got valuable deals from Hyderabad, Chennai, and Jaipur respectively.

In my view the biggest surprise of the day was David Hussey being picked up for $657,000 by Kolkata. Uncle J has been running a petition for David Hussey's inclusion in the Aussie ODI side and his case has been made stronger due to the struggling Aussie batsmen in the CB series and his most recent 113 of 64 balls, the 2nd fastest century in Australian domestic cricket. Hussey junior's bid was more surprising because his elder brother Micheal Hussey, who is a permanent member of the Aussie side, did not attract any bids.

In the most recent round of bidding the franchisees concentrated on tanking up their bowling force with Jaipur picking up Munaf Patel ($275,000), Mumbai bagging the Lankan pair of Lasith Malinga ($350,000) and Dilhara Fernando ($150,000), Bangalore hitting the jackpot with Dale Steyn ($325,000) and Nathan Bracken ($325,000), Hyderabad bidding succesfully for RP Singh and the Sri Lankan pair of Chaminda Vaas ($200,000) and Nuwan Zoysa ($110,000), Mohali settling for the spinning combo of Ramesh Power ($170,000) and Piyush Chawla ($400,000), and Kolkata smartly bagging Ishant Sharma, Murali Karthik ($425,000), and Umar Gul ($150,000).

Stay tuned for the final update.

Make your pitch on this post...



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4 Pitched:

  1. Anonymous said...
     

    This auction is the most surreal thing ever. I feel like I've wandered into a Dada exhibition! Thanks for covering it Q.

  2. KC said...
     

    these auction prices that are tagged to the players, are these teh actual salaries that these guys will receive, or is this just the right to own them (as an asset) and the salaries are different?

    i would assume the latter - as that's how things work in football as well - and the asset value would improve/decline with their performance. this would mean that the season-ending transfer windows will be far more fun to watch than what transpired today.

    geo's covereage is the best - "none of pakistani player could get into the top-10 highly rated .." is there headline ... funny!!

    is icl-challenge the only thing stopping yousuf's bidding, or was there no interest in him at all?

  3. Anonymous said...
     

    thanks for the update Q, i feel happy amd sad. Happy to see rich ppl making good investments. Sad to see them screw up cricket as we know it

  4. Q said...
     

    Miriam - I think whoever was present at the Hilton Towers today witnessed what a stock market for cricketers looked like. Players priced for 200K sold for over 800K, rookies sold for over 500K and some of the best got as low as 300K.

    KC - No the prices bid for these players are the cheques the players will recieve to represent the teams for the nest 3 years. So it is their salary for 3 years. However, if a player misses 1 of the years or plays less than 4 matches a year due to international commitments 25% of the salary will be deducted.

    The judge ruling over yousuf's case gave a notice that Yousuf not be allowed to play in any rival league for IPL thus no team took the risk with him.

    AMK - I dont think cricket will screw up. An annual slot for the IPL will be granted by the ICC and 6 weeks of such action would be added entertainment during the packed international calendar. Moreover I think the IPL and other leagues like this will give a boost to domestic cricket all over the world which could in 5-10 years time all be run by franchises.

    Exciting times ahead.

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