Kiwi keeper sold for $NZ890,000

Four Black Caps auctioned for $NZ2.9m

Reuters

CASH GRAB: Brendon McCullum fetched the highest price of $NZ886,7493 among the New Zealand players IPL Twenty20 cricket franchise auction in Mumbai overnight. Jacob Oram and Daniel Vettori also sold for respectable sums, but the biggest buy was Indian captain Mahendra Dhoni for $US1.5m.

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Wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum fetched the highest price of $US700,000 ($NZ886,750) among the New Zealand players who went under the hammer at the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 cricket franchise auction in Mumbai last night.

World No 1 one-day allrounder Jacob Oram fetched $US675,000 ($NZ846,000) while Black Caps skipper Daniel Vettori , the top ranked one-day bowler in the world, fetched $US625,000 ($NZ783,000), Stephen Fleming fetched $US350,000 ($NZ439,350) and Scott Styris $US175,000 ($NZ219,000).

But the pay for McCullum, Oram and Vettori will be reduced on a pro-rata basis because they are unavailable for the whole IPL tournament.

The 59-game tournament starts on April 18 and ends with a final on June 1, but the top New Zealand trio will be required to play in a test series against England, starting on May 15.

Styris has retired from test cricket and Fleming is retiring after the third home test against England next month.

McCullum was snapped up in the auction by Kolkata, while Oram and Fleming were acquired by Chennai, Vettori by Delhi and Styris by Hyderabad.

Indian one-day captain Mahendra Dhoni attracted the highest IPL bid of $US1.5 million, followed by Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds on $1.35 million.

Retired Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne was the first player to go under the hammer in a five-star Mumbai hotel conference room filled with cricketers, celebrities and tycoons, fetching $450,000.

The teams will pay the winning bids to the player annually. The contracts are for a three-year period and are guaranteed by the Indian cricket board.

"It is amazing drama," Inderjit Bindra, a member of the IPL governing council, told reporters. "The market is determining the price. That's how a free market economy should flow."

Dhoni was snapped up by the southern metropolis side in the first round of the sale.

Warne's compatriot fast bowler Brett Lee was later snapped up by Mohali for $US900,000 while Australia captain Ricky Ponting was bought by Kolkata for $US400,000.

The Mumbai franchise, which has Sachin Tendulkar as the designated city player and is owned by India's most valuable company Reliance Industries, paid $US975,000 for Sri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya and $US850,000 for India spinner Harbhajan Singh.

Australian 'keeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist, who last month retired from test cricket, went to Hyderabad for $US700,000. Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan went to Chennai for $US600,000.

The players are being put up for bidding in sets of 12 according to their annual base price, multiple-skills and expected availability for the inaugural year.

Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene was bought up by the Mohali franchise for $US475,000 while temperamental Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar went to Kolkata for $US425,000.

Retired Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath and Pakistan's Mohammad Yousuf did not find buyers in the first round and will come up for bidding in the second.

The eight franchise teams of the IPL - Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mohali and Mumbai - had a budget of up to $US5 million each for a maximum of eight contracted players.

No single event has made global cricket news in this manner since Kerry Packer's circuit did over thirty years ago, but unlike the IPL, the late Australian media magnate's event was a breakaway league.

Some of the country's biggest companies, including Reliance Industries and spirit company UB Group, have bought franchises. Bollywood stars Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta have bought into the Kolkata and Mohali franchises, adding further glamour to the league.

The player contracts are for a period of three years.

-NZPA, Reuters