Indian Premier League auction update #3

A good synopsis of how the auction went can be found here. I’m in a rush to get to work so no comments yet from me.

Indian Premier League auction update #2

Current squads, with prices paid for the players:

Jaipur Shane Warne (US$ 450,000), Graeme Smith (US$ 475,000), Younis Khan (US$ 225,000), Kamran Akmal (US$ 150,000), Yusuf (US$ 475,000)

Chennai MS Dhoni (US$ 1.5 million), Muttiah Muralitharan (US$ 600,00), Matthew Hayden (US$ 375,000), Jacob Oram (US$ 675,000), Stephen Fleming (US$ 350,000), Parthiv Patel (US$ 325,000), Joginder Sharma (US$ 225,000), Albie Morkel (US$ 650,000)

Mumbai Sachin Tendulkar (icon), Sanath Jayasuriya (US$ 975,000), Harbhajan Singh (US$ 850,000), Shaun Pollock (US$ 550,000)

Bangalore Rahul Dravid (icon), Anil Kumble (US$ 500,000), Jacques Kallis (US$ 900,000), Zaheer Khan (US$ 450,000), Mark Boucher (US$ 450,000), Cameron White (US$ 500,000)

Hyderabad Adam Gilchrist (US$ 700,000), Andrew Symonds (US$ 1.35 million), Herschelle Gibbs (US$ 575,000), Shahid Afridi (US$ 675,000), Scott Styris (US$ 175,000)

Mohali Yuvraj Singh (icon), Mahela Jayawardene (US$ 475,000), Kumar Sangakkara (US$ 700,000), Brett Lee (US$ 900,000), Sreesanth (US$ 625,000), Irfan Pathan (US$ 925,000)

Kolkata Sourav Ganguly (icon), Shoaib Akhtar (US$ 425,000), Ricky Ponting (US$ 400,000), Brendon McCullum (US$ 700,000), Chris Gayle (US$ 800,000), Ajit Agarkar (US$ 330,000)

Delhi Virender Sehwag (icon), Daniel Vettori (US$ 625,000), Shoaib Malik (US$ 500,000), Mohammad Asif (US$ 650,000), AB de Villiers (US$ 300,000), Dinesh Karthik (US$ 525,000), Farveez Maharoof (US$ 225,000), Tillakaratne Dilshan (US$ 250,000)The Pakistan uncertainty explains the lower prices for Hayden and Ponting, but with Andrew Symonds declaring that he will most likely not head to Pakistan , it explains why Hyderabad have paid so much for him. That side has the makings of a great one – Scott Styris may well prove to be the bargain buy of the whole pool of players, since he’s a very handy all rounder whose bowling style of medium pace cutters may suit the Indian conditions.

Indian Premier League auction update #1

Keep tabs on the action by visiting Cricinfo’s blog page.  Too early to really make any statements on the make up of each team, but after throwing money at MS Dhoni and a bit less at Murali, Chennai don’t have much more in terms of spending power. Dhoni, whilst working his way into form, will need some quality batsmen as team mates at (relatively speaking) bargain prices, and I think Murali’s probably just past his best in the limited overs game – still by all means a quality spinner, but batsmen are getting used to his doosra. It’ll be with the catchment and U-22 players where he will take the bulk of his wickets.

More later…

Your Fantasy Indian Premier League franchise

A discussion on ABC Local Radio’s coverage of the one dayer at the Adelaide Oval (where Australia are struggling a bit at 5/102 after 28 overs) centered around a listener SMS asking who would be in the commentators’ hypothetical IPL franchise (which has to have 16 players, of whom eight can be international and four from the Under-22 level or from the catchment area where the team is based.) It seems also that each team can have a maximum of 2 international players from the same country.

Obviously, not knowing much about the catchment areas of the different teams, I am concentrating on my choice of 8 international players who would be in my hypothetical franchise. There is a stipulation stating that Indian players will play in the city represented by their home state, and I will stick to this stipulation (which means Sachin Tendulkar doesn’t feature, since I wanted to include my new favourite bowler). If you’d like to submit a group of 8, please refer to the official list of players featured in this IPL-produced pdf.

In no particular order:

Brett Lee (AUS), Brendon McCullum (NZ), Virender Sehwag (IND/Delhi), Ishant Sharma (IND/Delhi), Jacob Oram (NZ), Michael Clarke (AUS), Muttiah Muralitharan (SL), Herschelle Gibbs (SAf).

3 bowlers, 3 batsmen, 1 all rounder and 1 keeper seems a logical mix for the internationals. Gibbs may be a slight liability, but I think that he would provide an explosive opening partnership with either Sehwag or McCullum (who in my opinion is the in form wicketkeeper/batsman in world cricket today). Murali would be well supported by Clarke and Sehwag as part time spin options, and Lee/Sharma as a new ball combination provides the right mix of pace and accuracy.