IPL Teams Splash £40m At Player Auction
Teams have spent a combined total of £40m to bring in players for the lucrative Indian Premier League in the second and final day of the auction with four England cricketers snapped up.
350 players were on sale with 127 securing contracts to play in the IPL which begins in April but Kevin Pietersen, Stuart Broad, Eoin Morgan and Paul Collingwood were the only Englishmen to be given deals.
Pietersen’s $615,000 contract with the Deccan Chargers was the first commercial contract undertaken on his behalf by Wasserman Media Group after the agency reached an agreement with the player’s UK-based agents Mission Sports Management to be his exclusive representatives in the sub-continent with the specific role of developing his commercial profile, promote his brand and grow his sponsorship portfolio.
Broad went to Kings XI Punjab for $400,000, Morgan to the Knight Riders for $350,000 and Collingwood to Shane Warne’s Rajasthan Royals for $250,000.
However, Ashes heroes Graeme Swann and Anderson remained unsold as they could not draw their base price of $400,000.
Indian Test batsman Gautam Gambhir became the most expensive player in the history of the IPL, going for $2.4m.
But big names in the world of cricket including former India captain Sourav Ganguly and West Indies batting legend Brian Lara went unsold.
Two new teams, Kochi and Pune Warriors, have joined the league, which will start just six days after the end of the World Cup co-hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
