Yuvraj Singh was snapped up by Delhi Daredevils for a whopping Rs16 crores (approx. USD 2.58 million).
IANS/Bengaluru
Despite being out of the Indian team, Yuvraj Singh’s fortunes seem to be ever on the rise as Delhi Daredevils paid up a whopping Rs16 crore (approx. USD 2.58 million) for the all-rounder at the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction for the eighth edition of the tournament, here yesterday.
The money-spinning tournament is scheduled to start April 8 and stretch till May 24.
One of the 12 marquee players in the fray, Yuvraj, who has been out of the Indian team for a while and was ignored for the 2011 World Cup squad, was released by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) who had picked up the Punjab-born star for Rs14 crore (USD 2.25 million) last year.
Equally stunning buys were those of two uncapped domestic players — 20-year-old Shreyas Iyer of Mumbai and Bengaluru’s KC Cariyappa, 17 — who struck a jackpot commanding Rs2.6 crore (USD 419,000), and Rs2.4 crore (USD 387,000), respectively, after entering the auction at a base price of Rs10 lakh (USD 16,000).
Iyer, who has scored two centuries for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy this season, was picked up by Delhi Daredevils (DD) while off-spinner Cariyappa, yet to play a first-class game, was bought by defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) after intense rounds of bidding just before the lunch break.
In all, 67, including 23 overseas players, of a possible 88 players, were sold with a total amount of Rs87.6 crore (USD 14.1 million) spent.
The day began with bids for the 12 marquee players. While Daredevils bagged Yuvraj for Rs16 crore (USD 2.5 million) and Sri Lankan all-rounder Angelo Mathews for Rs7.5 crore (USD 1.2 million), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) picked up wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik for Rs7.5 crore (USD 1.2 million).
Sunrisers Hyderabad bought sacked England batsman Kevin Pietersen and current England captain Eoin Morgan for Rs2.4 crore (USD 387,000) and Rs2 crore (USD 322,000) respectively.
Also commanding high prices were Australian opener Aaron Finch, who was sold to Mumbai Indians for Rs3.2 crore (USD 322,000). Leg-spinner Amit Mishra was bought for Rs3.5 crore (USD 564,000) by Daredevils.
Opening batsman Murali Vijay received a successful bid for Rs3 crore (USD 483,000) by Kings XI Punjab and Sunrisers paid Rs60 lakh (USD 97,000) for New Zealand batsman Kane Williamson.
Among the marquee players, South African batting star Hashim Amla and legendary Sri Lankan trio of Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan were left unsold.
In the post-lunch session, out-of-favour India pacer Zaheer Khan, unsold in the first round, was picked up by Daredevils for Rs4 crore (USD 645,000), out-bidding Mumbai Indians.
Also receiving a reprieve was another India discard, all-rounder Irfan Pathan, whom Chennai Super Kings bought at the base price of Rs1.5 crore (USD 242,000) as there were no other bids.
Teams and their buys
Chennai Super Kings: Michael Hussey, USD241,935; Irfan Pathan, USD241,935; Rahul Sharma, USD48,387; Kyle Abbott, USD48,387; Andrew Tye, USD32,258; Pratyush Singh, USD16,129; Ankush Bains, USD16,129; Eklavya Dwivedi, USD16,129
Delhi Daredevils: Yuvraj Singh, USD2,580,645; Angelo Mathews, USD1,209,677; Zaheer Khan, USD645,161; Amit Mishra, USD564,516; Shreyas Iyer, USD419,355; Gurinder Sandhu, USD274,194; Jaydev Unadkat, USD177,419; Domnic Joseph Muthuswamy, USD120,968; Albie Morkel, USD48,387; Travis Head, USD48,387; Marcus Stoinis, USD40,323; C.M. Gautam, USD32,258; Kona Srikar Bharat, USD16,129; K.K. Jiyaz, USD16,129
Kings XI Punjab: Murali Vijay, USD48,3871; Nikhil Shankar Naik, USD48,387; Yogesh Gowalkar, USD16,129
Kolkata Knight Riders: K.C. Cariappa, USD387,097; James Neesham, USD80,645; Brad Hogg, USD80,645; Aditya Garhwal, USD40,323; Sheldon Jackson, USD24,194; Sumit Narwal, USD16,129; Vaibhav Rawal, USD16,129
Mumbai Indians: Aaron Finch, USD516,129; Pragyan Ojha, USD80,645; Abhimanyu Mithun, USD48,387; Mitchell McClenaghan, USD48,387; Aiden Blizzard, USD48,387; Hardik Pandya, USD16,129; Akshay Wakhare, USD16,129; Nitish Rana, USD16,129; Siddhesh Dinesh Lad, USD16,129; J. Suchitch, USD16,129
Rajasthan Royals: Christopher Morris, USD225,806; Juan Theron, USD48,387; Barinder Singh Saran, USD16,129; Dinesh Salunkhe, USD16,129; Sagar Trivedi, USD16,129; Pardeep Sahu, USD16,129
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Dinesh Karthik, USD1,693,548; Darren Sammy, USD451,613; David Wiese, USD451,613; Sean Abbott, USD161,290; Adam Milne, USD112,903; Sarfaraz Naushad Khan, USD80,645; Subramaniam Badrinath, USD48,387; Jalaj Saxena, USD16,129; Shshir Bhavane, USD16,129
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Trent Boult, USD612,903; Praveen Kumar, USD354,839; Kevin Pietersen, USD322,581; Eoin Morgan, USD241,935; Ravi Bopara, USD161,290; Kane Williamson, USD96,774; Laxmi Ratan Shukla, USD48,387; Prasanth Padmanabhan, USD16,129; Hanuma Vihari, USD16,129; Siddarth Kaul, USD16,129
Note: Exchange rate of 1USD = Rs62