India one-day captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Australia all-rounder Andrew Symonds attracted the highest bids in the Indian Premier League player auction.
Chennai paid US dollars 1.5million for Dhoni early on, while Symonds became the most expensive overseas player in the third round of bidding when Hyderabad forked out US dollars 1.35million for his services.
The pair were the only players to cost over US dollars 1million, with Sri Lanka all-rounder Sanath Jayasuriya - a US dollars 975,000 purchase by Kolkata - falling just short of that mark.
advertisement
India duo Ishant Sharma and Irfan Pathan were both snapped up by Mohali for US dollars 950,000 and 925,000 respectively, along with Australia paceman Brett Lee, who cost US dollars 900,000.
Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene will also play for Mohali.
South Africa all-rounder Jacques Kallis also went for US dollars 900,000 to Bangalore, but it was the Indians who continued to command the majority of the big-money moves.
Hyderabad made a successful bid of US dollars 875,000 for RP Singh, while spinner Harbhajan Singh went to Mumbai for US dollars 850,000.
Retiring Australia wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist attracted a bid of US dollars 700,000 from Hyderabad, who also acquired South Africa batsman Herschelle Gibbs and Pakistan spinner Shahid Afridi for US dollars 575,000 and 675,000 respectively.
Hyderabad also snapped up New Zealand's Scott Styris for just US dollars 175,000.
Former Australia fast bowler Glenn McGrath and Pakistan batsman Mohammad Yousuf were among the players put in a reserve pool with no takers initially willing to meet their valuations. They were both bought in the second round of bidding.
Sri Lanka star Muttiah Muralitharan will line up alongside Dhoni at Chennai after a bid of US dollars 600,000, while fellow spinner Shane Warne was bought by Jaipur for US dollars 450,000.
Kolkata's acquisitions included Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar (US dollars 425,000), Australia skipper Ricky Ponting (US dollars 400,000), New Zealand wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum (US dollars 700,000) and West Indies captain Chris Gayle (US dollars 800,000).
Other signings included South African all-rounders Albie Morkel - who joined Chennai for US dollars 635,000 - and Shaun Pollock, who cost Mumbai US dollars 550,000, while Proteas wicketkeeper Mark Boucher was a US dollars 450,000 signing for Bangalore.
Each of the eight franchises had a total of US dollars 5million to bid at the auction, which took place electronically in Mumbai.
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
Print
Email this
