Despite being away from any sort of competitive cricket for four years, Brian Lara finds himself in the pool of 21 players with highest base price of $400,000 for the 2011 IPL auction, to be held in Bangalore on January 8 and 9.
The list also comprises Indian players, Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh, former Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist and five members of the victorious World Twenty20 England side – Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Graeme Swann, Michael Yardy and Luke Wright.
Star IPL performers like Daniel Vettori, Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor, Graeme Smith, AB de Villiers, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Chris Gayle are also a part of the elite list, as are Brett Lee, Shaun Marsh and Mahela Jayawardene – all players released by Kings XI Punjab.
The next bracket, of $300,000 includes Jacques Kallis and Muttiah Muralitharan, who have played key roles for Bangalore and Chennai franchises. The Indian players on that list are Zaheer Khan and Yusuf Pathan who are joined by Andrew Symonds, Shaun Tait, Kumar Sangakkara, and Angelo Mathews.
Sourav Ganguly, the ‘icon’ player of Kolkata Knight Riders in the first three seasons and Gautam Gambhir, who led the Delhi Daredevils in IPL-3, find themselves in the bracket of $200,000, which also includes the Australian pair of Michael Hussey and Doug Bollinger. Others in that bracket are Dirk Nannes, Eoin Morgan, Robin Uthappa and Sanath Jayasuriya. The bracket of $100,000 comprises 87 players, including Tamim Iqbal, R Ashwin, Morne Morkel and Ben Hilfenhaus. However, as inferred from the previous IPL auctions, the final amount received by a player can exceed way beyond his base price.
There are also surprises as far as some of the names excluded from the list of 416 players in the auction is concerned. Besides the Pakistani players, who continue to suffer the IPL snub, big current Australian players like Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke and Mitchell Johnson and former stars like Matthew Hayden and Glenn McGrath have been ignored. Also omitted is Andrew Flintoff, who was the most expensive players in the second auction, signed by the Chennai Super Kings for $1.55 million.
Only 12 players have been retained by their respective franchises with Punjab, Deccan Chargers and Kolkata opting to release all their players. This means, these three teams have the entire purse of $9 million intact to spend in the auction. Chennai and Mumbai Indians, who have retained their full quota of four players each, are left with $4.5 million.
The fourth season is set to feature 10 teams and 74 matches, as originally planned as it is unlikely the BCCI will move the Supreme Court after their appeal to suspend Punjab and Rajasthan Royals was overturned by the High Court.
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