They All Got Who They Wanted
Or was that the case the 2nd IPL auction held earlier this morning in Goa?
As expected the IPL got two new millionnaires - Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff, each bagging US$ 1.55 million and pushing Dhoni from being the most expensive IPL player to the 3rd expensive one.
Bangalore Royal Challengers
As I had expected a couple of days back it was Mallya who pocketed KP's services. Bangalore desperately needed a flamboyant player and they not only got KP, but Jesse Ryder, the hard hitting New Zealander as well.
KP and Ryder make a hell of a pair to pick up in one auction.
What's more interesting though is that KP joins the same team as Boucher, Kallis, and Steyn. What a happy bunch of South Africans!
Chennai SuperKings
Dhoni had wished for Flintoff and he got him.
What a rich team the Chennai SuperKings are now - 2 players earning at least $1.5 million. Deep pockets that.
Adding Flintoff to a line up that already included Hayden and Micheal Hussey just made the SuperKings even more super.
Add to that Dhoni, Raina, Albie Morkel, and Muralitharan and you are looking at probably the next IPL Champions.
Rajasthan Royals
The defending IPL champions had the toughest job at the auction as they had to find replacements for last year's player of the tournament and bowler of the tournament.
Shane Watson and Sohail Tanvir played an instrumental role in the Royals' march to the title last year. This year though, both are unavailable.
Their replacements - Tyron Henderson and Shaun Tait.
Henderson, from what I hear, is an allrounder and replaces Watson, while Tait, we all know about.
The Royals have a tough season ahead.
Kolkata Knight Riders
Missing Umar Gul, the Riders wanted a fast bowler and they bagged one in Mashrafe Murtaza, the Bangladeshi striker.
Surprisingly it wasn't Shakib or KP or Flintoff who generated a bidding war this morning.
It was Murtaza, who starting from a base price of $50,000 was bagged by the Riders for 12 times that amount - $600,000.
Despite not having the services of Salman Butt and Shoaib Akhtar this season, the Riders did not buy any other player but then when one has the likes of Gayle, Ponting, Hodge, David Hussey, and Mendis on the roster to go along with Ganguly and Ishant Sharma, you don't really need anyone else.
Kings XI Punjab
Priety Zinta's Kings were only looking for a replacement for Brett Lee and they managed an able buy in Jerome Taylor.
The Kings also bought Ravi Bopara to add to the list of hard hitters in Shaun Marsh, Pomersbach, Hopes, Jayawardene, and King Sanga.
Not to mention Yuvraj Singh!
Formidable team that.
Delhi Daredevils
As if David Warner, Dirty Dirk, and all the other Australians that the Daredevils has been buying were not enough, they bought Owais Shah and Paul Collingwood as well.
The Daredevils just keep getting stronger with every new pick of theirs.
Shah and Collingwood just adds to their strength.
They've already got Sehwag and Gambhir. And AB De Villiers and Dilshan. And Manoj Tiwary and Dinesh Karthik.
Not to mention McGrath, Mahroof, Nehra, Geeves, and Vettori!
Mumbai Indians
They didn't have to replace anyone.
They had Sachin, Jayasuriya, Bravo and they recently traded for Zaheer Khan, an able replacement for Shaun Pollock.
Still, they had a busy auction bagging the flavour of the year, JP Duminy, who also generated quite a bidding war eventually selling for $950,000 - 3 times more than his base price of $300,000.
They also bought Kyle Mills and the Bangladesh skipper, Mohammad Ashraful.
Sachin has quite a team this year.
Deccan Chargers
The team ended bottom of the league last year.
Their CEO yesterday said he was no longer their CEO, but the owners denied it.
They replaced Laxman in the off season with Gilchrist as their captain.
Afridi is no longer available, not that that would make a difference. But the troubled cricketers, Gibbs and Symonds, both going through some sort of rehab, are there.
The Chargers have had nothing going for them.
The auction didn't do them much good either. Not to discount the abilities of Fidel Edwards and Dwayne Smith, but surely they should have tried harder.
The auction is over. The teams are stronger. The defiending champions are weaker. But they have Warne. Another has Warner. KP & Flintoff are on board as well. Exciting IPL season ahead!
As expected the IPL got two new millionnaires - Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff, each bagging US$ 1.55 million and pushing Dhoni from being the most expensive IPL player to the 3rd expensive one.
Bangalore Royal Challengers
As I had expected a couple of days back it was Mallya who pocketed KP's services. Bangalore desperately needed a flamboyant player and they not only got KP, but Jesse Ryder, the hard hitting New Zealander as well.
KP and Ryder make a hell of a pair to pick up in one auction.
What's more interesting though is that KP joins the same team as Boucher, Kallis, and Steyn. What a happy bunch of South Africans!
Chennai SuperKings
Dhoni had wished for Flintoff and he got him.
What a rich team the Chennai SuperKings are now - 2 players earning at least $1.5 million. Deep pockets that.
Adding Flintoff to a line up that already included Hayden and Micheal Hussey just made the SuperKings even more super.
Add to that Dhoni, Raina, Albie Morkel, and Muralitharan and you are looking at probably the next IPL Champions.
Rajasthan Royals
The defending IPL champions had the toughest job at the auction as they had to find replacements for last year's player of the tournament and bowler of the tournament.
Shane Watson and Sohail Tanvir played an instrumental role in the Royals' march to the title last year. This year though, both are unavailable.
Their replacements - Tyron Henderson and Shaun Tait.
Henderson, from what I hear, is an allrounder and replaces Watson, while Tait, we all know about.
The Royals have a tough season ahead.
Kolkata Knight Riders
Missing Umar Gul, the Riders wanted a fast bowler and they bagged one in Mashrafe Murtaza, the Bangladeshi striker.
Surprisingly it wasn't Shakib or KP or Flintoff who generated a bidding war this morning.
It was Murtaza, who starting from a base price of $50,000 was bagged by the Riders for 12 times that amount - $600,000.
Despite not having the services of Salman Butt and Shoaib Akhtar this season, the Riders did not buy any other player but then when one has the likes of Gayle, Ponting, Hodge, David Hussey, and Mendis on the roster to go along with Ganguly and Ishant Sharma, you don't really need anyone else.
Kings XI Punjab
Priety Zinta's Kings were only looking for a replacement for Brett Lee and they managed an able buy in Jerome Taylor.
The Kings also bought Ravi Bopara to add to the list of hard hitters in Shaun Marsh, Pomersbach, Hopes, Jayawardene, and King Sanga.
Not to mention Yuvraj Singh!
Formidable team that.
Delhi Daredevils
As if David Warner, Dirty Dirk, and all the other Australians that the Daredevils has been buying were not enough, they bought Owais Shah and Paul Collingwood as well.
The Daredevils just keep getting stronger with every new pick of theirs.
Shah and Collingwood just adds to their strength.
They've already got Sehwag and Gambhir. And AB De Villiers and Dilshan. And Manoj Tiwary and Dinesh Karthik.
Not to mention McGrath, Mahroof, Nehra, Geeves, and Vettori!
Mumbai Indians
They didn't have to replace anyone.
They had Sachin, Jayasuriya, Bravo and they recently traded for Zaheer Khan, an able replacement for Shaun Pollock.
Still, they had a busy auction bagging the flavour of the year, JP Duminy, who also generated quite a bidding war eventually selling for $950,000 - 3 times more than his base price of $300,000.
They also bought Kyle Mills and the Bangladesh skipper, Mohammad Ashraful.
Sachin has quite a team this year.
Deccan Chargers
The team ended bottom of the league last year.
Their CEO yesterday said he was no longer their CEO, but the owners denied it.
They replaced Laxman in the off season with Gilchrist as their captain.
Afridi is no longer available, not that that would make a difference. But the troubled cricketers, Gibbs and Symonds, both going through some sort of rehab, are there.
The Chargers have had nothing going for them.
The auction didn't do them much good either. Not to discount the abilities of Fidel Edwards and Dwayne Smith, but surely they should have tried harder.
The auction is over. The teams are stronger. The defiending champions are weaker. But they have Warne. Another has Warner. KP & Flintoff are on board as well. Exciting IPL season ahead!
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