Jan. 9: With the marquee players and top picks having been roped in on the opening day, the excitement at the IPL-4 auctions was understandably lower on the second day; it was a more a time of consolidation.
With most franchisees arriving at the crux of their squad, save for Rajasthan Royals, who owing to a limited purse, kept a low profile, and Kings XI Punjab, who shied away from picking up any player until a fresh list of unsold players was circulated, many of the smaller fry including a host of Englishmen and West Indians went unpicked.
With as many as 238 of the 352 going unsold, the IPL authorities asked the franchisee owners to draw up a wish list of those that they wished to come up for a second round of auction. Not surprisingly, only 28 found favour among the owners leaving the huge chunk of 210 cricketers out of the IPL.
Having spent a lion’s share of the money on the opening day, the owners were markedly cautious in their buys and the highest pick of the day was Deccan Chargers’ Daniel Christian, who vaulted 18 times his base price of $50k to net $900,000. The Aussie, an all-rounder, is an investment for the future.
If 15 cricketers had breached the one million-mark with stunning regularity on the first day, there wasn’t a single one on the second day.