Cricket’s day out

Top 5 cricketers in IPL auction [picture courtesy]

Few eyebrows rose when the BCCI auctioned ownership of regional T-20 teams sometime back. Maybe people couldn’t hazard a guess what that would turn out.

In the event Shah Rukh Khan emerged victorious for the Kolkata team while Preity Zinta bagged the Mohali team. For those who won the bids, including Vijaya Mallya for the Bangalore team, it was pure business. For BCCI the sum collected was nothing short of windfall.

Bigger surprise was to come yesterday when the players were put ‘on the block’. Indian sports have never seen such moneyed frenzy as player after player fetched enormous sums in the auction.

Dhoni held the top spot with a price tag of Rs.6 crore for the Chennai team. Aussie all-rounder Andrew Symonds came next with Rs.5.4 crore for Hyderabad team. There was no sign of acrimony during the bidding concerning his recent row with Harbhajan.

The Kolkata team bagged Ishant Sharma, a good prize considering his sterling performance currently in Australia.

Leaving Sourav here are the prices of team Kolkata players that were ‘won’ at the auction:

Ishant Sharma ($950K)
Chris Gayle ($800K)
Brendon Mccullum ($700K)
David Hussey ($625K)
Shoaib Akhtar ($425K)
Murali Kartik ($425K)
Ricky Ponting ($400K)
Ajit Agarkar ($350K)
Umar Gul ($150K)
Tatenda Taibu ($125K)

Below is a video of Kolkata newspaper headlines (ToI, ET, ABP, and TT). They all screamed about the auction.

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