Ok, so I’ve been mentioning a little bit lately abut the Indian Premier League and now after the player auction, I’ll piece everything together from scratch.
The Indian Premier League is a new 20/20 Cricket League which will be held in India in April this year. The tournament will run for just over a month (44 days).
The tournament will be a round robin format consisting of 8 teams, with the top 4 teams playing off in semis, then the final. The prize money will be $3 million.
The 8 teams were determined by the highest bidder for different regions of India. The teams are as follows (their winning bid are in brackets):
Bangalore Royal Challengers ($111.6 million)
Chennai Super Kings ($91 million)
Delhi Daredevils ($84 million)
Hyderabad ($107 million)
Jaipur ($67 million)
Kolkata ($75.09 million)
Mohali ($76 million)
Mumbai ($111.9 million)
With the franchises established, next came selecting the players. The squads are made of 16 players, however there are some restrictions. For starters, each team could only select a maximum of 2 Australian players. This was a rule set by Cricket Australia so no teams looked like a mini Australian team.
The squad of 16 can consist of up to 8 international players bought from the auction, 4 players from their local region and 4 players which are either Indian Under 22 players or Indian ‘Icon’ Players. The 5 Icon players were pre-selected by their teams, and their wage is 15% more than the highest paid player on their team.
The salary cap is between $3.8 million and $5.43 million.
Now I’ll explain the player auction process.
In a practice unheard of before, the players were auctioned off to the highest bidder. Each team had a chance to place 1 bid for the player and the highest bid got the player. The players didn’t have a say where they ended up, similar to that of a draft. Each player had a minimum opening bid, with some players such as Glenn McGrath initially not attracting a bid. Upon this, they were re-auctioned later on.
The teams:
After the auctions, the teams shaped up. The contracts are for 3 years, and no player can be traded until the end of next season. Their annual salaries are the figures next to them, and are represented in US dollars.
Bangalore:
Rahul Dravid $1,035,000
Jacques Kallis $900,000
Anil Kumble $500,000
Cameron White $500,000
Zaheer Khan $450,000
Mark Boucher $450,000
Nathan Bracken $325,000
Dale Steyn $325,000
Shivnarine Chanderpaul $200,000
Wasim Jaffer $150,000
– Rahul Dravid was Bangalore’s Icon Player. Cameron White and Nathan Bracken are the two Australians.
Chennai:
Mahendra Singh Dhoni $1,500,000
Jacob Oram $675,000
Suresh Raina $650,000
Albie Morkel $675,000
Muttiah Muralitharan $600,000
Matthew Hayden $375,000
Michael Hussey $350,000
Stephen Fleming $350,000
Parthiv Patel $325,000
Joginder Sharma $225,000
Makhaya Ntini $200,000
– Dhoni was the highest bid player in the IPL. He was not an Icon player, and is currently India’s 20/20 Captain. Matthew Hayden and Michael Hussey are the Australians.
Delhi:
Virender Sehwag $833,750
Gautam Gambhir $725,000
Manoj Tiwary $675,000
Mohammad Asif $650,000
Daniel Vettori $625,000
Dinesh Karthik $525,000
Shoaib Malik $500,000
Glenn McGrath $350,000
AB de Villiers $300,000
Tillakaratne Dilshan $250,000
Farveez Maharoof $225,000
– Sehwag is the Icon Player and Glenn McGrath is the only Australian Player.
Hyderabad:
Andrew Symonds $1,350,000
R. P. Singh $875,000
Rohit Sharma $750,000
Adam Gilchrist $700,000
Shahid Afridi $675,000
Herschelle Gibbs $575,000
V. V. S. Laxman $375,000
Chaminda Vaas $200,000
Scott Styris $175,000
Nuwan Zoysa $110,000
Chamara Silva $100,000
– Hyderabad didn’t have an Icon Payer, and Andrew Symonds and Adam Gilchrist are their Australians.
Jaipur:
Mohammad Kaif $675,000
Yusuf Pathan $475,000
Graeme Smith $475,000
Shane Warne $450,000
Munaf Patel $275,000
Younis Khan $225,000
Justin Langer $200,000
Kamran Akmal $150,000
– No icon player, and they have retired Australians Shane Warne and Justin Langer.
Kolkata:
Sourav Ganguly $1,092,500
Ishant Sharma $950,000
Chris Gayle $800,000
Brendon McCullum $700,000
David Hussey $625,000
Shoaib Akhtar $425,000
Murali Kartik $425,000
Ricky Ponting $400,000
Ajit Agarkar $330,000
Umar Gul $150,000
Tatenda Taibu $125,000
– Ganguly is their Icon Player, with David Hussey and Ricky Ponting the Australians.
Mohali:
Yuvraj Singh $1,063,750
Irfan Pathan $925,000
Brett Lee $900,000
Kumar Sangakkara $700,000
Sreesanth $625,000
Mahela Jayawardene $475,000
Piyush Chawla $400,000
Ramnaresh Sarwan $225,000
Simon Katich $200,000
Ramesh Powar $170,000
– Singh is their Icon Player, Brett Lee and Simon Katich are the Australians.
Mumbai:
Sachin Tendulkar $1,121,250
Sanath Jayasuriya $975,000
Harbhajan Singh $850,000
Robin Uthappa $800,000
Shaun Pollock $550,000
Lasith Malinga $350,000
Loots Bosman $175,000
Dilhara Fernando $150,000
– Sachin Tendulkar is their Icon Player and they have no Australian Players.
If you’re still reading, just remember that the figure shown is the amount they will be paid per season. The season is only 44 days! This puts them up there in comparative earnings to NBA players and European soccer stars.
Notable omissions are English players. They have a tour scheduled during the season, so unfortunately they will miss out for the next three years. You might also wonder why Australian captain Ricky Ponting went for such a small price, not to mention other strong performers Michael Hussey and Matthew Hayden. Australia has a tour scheduled for Pakistan during this time, and Andrew Symonds has already said he will not be going. Adam Gilchrist will be retired by the time the tour starts. So most Australian players will miss a portion of the tournament due the tour. However, state level players Cameron White, David Hussey and Simon Katich won’t miss any games as they are not in the Australian squad. This could be why these players attracted higher bids, because they can play the entire tournament.
Some might wonder what all the fuss is about, but this 20/20 league will be a huge turning point in the history of Cricket, similar to the World Series in the 70’s. What better place for it to be launched than India, where Cricket is their number 1 sport.
Compiled from Wikipedia and The Age Newspaper