The Pakistani cricketers have reacted with much anger about the fact that none of them were selected in the third edition of the Indian Premier League during the auctions that were held in Mumbai on Tuesday. There were 11 Pakistani cricketers in the fray, but not one was bid for as the franchises decided to play it safe, especially with the visa issues that the Pakistani players have faced in the past.
The auction was much hyped about, despite the fact that there was only $750,000 available per team and only about 13 slots available for all the sides to fill up. With 66 players in the fray, it would have been interesting to see who were the lucky few who got through to the final squads of the IPL teams.
The biggest draw of the auction was Kieron Pollard, who had obviously impressed one and all with his power hitting during the Champions League T20. There was this one single innings during that tournament against the New South Wales Blues that would have made him a virtual certainty in the IPL this year. However, what was probably unexpected was the ferocious bidding that happened for the player during the auctions.
There were four sides wanting to have Pollard in their sides, including Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore. All had their reasons; Kolkata have always gone for players who are punctuated with the glam factor and can pull in the crowds, whereas Chennai were to lose Andrew Flintoff, which meant that they had a lot of free money available for the tournament. Bangalore also is a glam side, and with Kevin Pietersen not expected to be full available, it was obvious that they would have wanted another all-rounder. As it turned out, Mumbai out bid everyone in the silent tie-breaker in which the franchises had to write down the sum of money they were ready to pay the IPL apart from the $750,000 to the player himself.
Apart from Pollard, Shane Bond was won by the Kolkata Knight Riders as well, for the maximum amount, through the silent tie-breaker. Deccan Chargers won over Kemar Roach for $720,000 whereas Wayne Parnell was won by Delhi for $610,000.
Some of the other buys were Mohammad Kaif (Punjab, 250,000), Eoin Morgan (Bangalore, 220,000), Damien Martyn (Rajasthan, 100,000), Justin Kemp (Chennai, 100,000), Thissara Perera (Chennai, 50,000), Adam Voges (Rajasthan, 50,000), Yusuf Abdulla (Punjab, 50,000).
Sign up for our daily email newsletter:
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
itz very dissapiontment for pakisatani players …they are da bst team in da world nd thy hav lotz of talent in thm nd still da ppl r blind thy r ignoring such players who r wrld champions cmon c in our team all old players r plannng jus for records cmom get retire nd giv othr players nwyz cum 2 ipl matter . itz nt fare wid thm v ignored thm because thy r pakistan 1st v were nt allowing thm in ipl ng now v r makng anothr issue by ignoring thm itz very bad yaar itz a game not sum war is going cmom ppl take it like a game nd thy r gona b again wrld championz bcoz thy r bst in twenty 20 ,,,nd plzz change da captain of our team hez jus playng for his name nd pride cmon make dravid or sehwag captain plzzzz do sumthng abt our team cmom ne 1 can beat bangladesh thnx to sachin werna v were abt 2 lose dis 1 also ….
I am very happy to see the no one has bid for Pakistani cricketers. this is time they should think why this happening with Pakistani all over world and try to Improve low and order and stop interfering in other country like India .