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Ganguly, Lara and Gayle get cold shoulder Bangalore, January 8 The ten IPL franchises made their thought process clear that a legend like Brian Lara and successful former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly have passed their sell-by-date. It might be a rude jolt for Ganguly who has prolonged his cricketing career only to play in the Indian Premier League not to find a single bidder among the 10 teams.
Durban, January 8 On a high after drawing a Test series on African soil for the first time, India have been left to deal with a couple of injury setbacks as they take on South Africa, sans Test skipper Graeme Smith, in the only Twenty20 International match of the tour here tomorrow. SAF Games: Indian team threatens to pull out 24 teams for women’s nationals
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right formoolah! In a high-profile auction, where Bollywood stars and corporate bigwigs were locked in a bidding war, Kolkata Knight Riders bought Gambhir for the mind-boggling sum, beating the previous high set by the English duo of Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff ($1.55 million) last season. Shah Rukh Khan was not present in person but his Kolkata Knight Riders, which had been reduced to an also-ran in the last two seasons, proved to be the big spender of the day by also buying hard-hitting all-rounders Yusuf Pathan (Rs 9.66 crore) and Jacques Kallis (Rs 5.06 crore) for the fourth edition of event to be held from April 8 to May 20. Gambhir, who was captain of the Delhi Daredevils last season, saw his price skyrocket 12 times from his base price of $200,000 (Rs 92 lakh) while three other Indian players — Yusuf ($2.1 million), Rohit Sharma ($2 million) and Robin Uthappa (2.1 million) crossed the two million mark. Yusuf's younger brother Irfan, who has not played any cricket this season, was taken by Delhi Daredevils for a surprisingly high amount of $1.9 (Rs 8.74 crore) million. But there were some surprise names in the unsold list with former India and KKR captain Sourav Ganguly, West Indies batting star Chris Gayle and the legendary Brian Lara failing to find a buyer. There is still a slim chance of these players finding a team after their names come up again in the second round of bidding. The bidding trend at the auction at times appeared to defy logic but what was certain was that the franchises were willing to spend big money on the Indian players. Mahela Jayawardene was the most expensive foreign player going to Kochi at $1.5 million (Rs 6.90 crore). Cricket aside, Bollywood stars Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty provided the glamour quotient while liquor baron Vijay Mallya, his son Siddharth, Nita Ambani and Nusli Wadia added the corporate aura at the auction. Cricketing brains such as Anil Kumble, Stephen Fleming, Geoff Lawson and Darren Lehmann, who have been roped in either as coaches or mentors by the franchises, helped them work out the bidding strategies. As expected, big money was spent but the way it was spent on some players was baffling. Robin Uthappa, who has been out of national reckoning for quite some time, was bought for an astounding $2.1 million (Rs 9.66 crore) by Sahara Pune Warriors who opened their account by buying Yuvraj Singh for USD 1.8 million (Rs 8.28 crore approx). Pune got Yuvraj, the icon player of Kings XI Punjab till last season, after beating Team Kochi and the batsman's former team in the bid. Even Rohit Sharma's price of $2 million (Rs 9.2 crore), which Mumbai Indians paid, came as a surprise in an auction where proven T20 specialists such as Jesse Ryder, Herschelle Gibbs, Mark Boucher and Graeme Swann went unsold. There was intense bidding for Gambhir, who was the first player under the hammer, from Pune and Mumbai before KKR joined the fray after it crossed the million dollar mark. Kings XI Punjab also lost the bid of Sri Lankan Mahela Jayawardene who was bought by Kochi for $1.5 million. The Royal Challengers Bangalore bought Zaheer Khan for $900,000 and dashing Lankan opener Tillakaratne Dilshan for $650,000. However, the Vijay Mallya-owned franchise had a prize catch in talented South African AB de Villiers, buying him for USD 1.1 million (Rs 5.06 crore). They also got New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori for only USD 550,000. The Rajasthan Royals bought New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor for USD 1 million (Rs 4.6 crore). But what turned out to be a surprise was South African off-spinner Johan Botha being bought after a lot of bidding for USD 950,000. However, Kevin Pietersen, who was one of the most sought after players in the second and third edition, was bought by Deccan Chargers for $650,000 much less than his million dollar price in the earlier years. Andrew Symonds, who was one of the costliest players during season one, was bought for USD 850,000 by Mumbai Indians. After the first two rounds, Team Kochi had bought the maximum five players (Mahela Jayawardene, Brendon McCullum, VVS Laxman, S Sreesanth and Rudra Pratap Singh). Kochi were quite lucky to buy McCullum for as low a price as $475,000 considering his reputation as a T20 dasher. Sahara Pune Warriors were also a gainer as they got South African captain Graeme Smith for $500,000 only. Kings XI Punjab who lost all their key players including the Lankan duo of Kumar Sangakkara (bought by Deccan Chargers for $650,000) and Jayawardene ($1.5 million for Kochi) and Yuvraj to Pune finally had something to cheer when they successfully bid for former Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist for $900,000.
— PTI |
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Ganguly, Lara and Gayle get cold shoulder Bangalore, January 8 Although there is a chance that he may be picked by a franchise later after the first round of auctions are over but this has been the biggest snub for one of India's greatest captains. "The writing was clear once he doubled his base price from $200,000. May be he thought that he would have takers at that price. One needs to realise that guys like Dravid and Laxman are still playing international cricket whereas he has quit top flight cricket two years back," an official who was present at the auctions told PTI today. West Indies batting great Brian Lara also did his reputation no good by jumping into the IPL bandwagon. Lara, who retired about three years back, did not find a buyer with the franchises not willing to take the risk by investing on him. The first day of auctions made one thing clear. The franchises are ready to pay for a youngster like Ravindra Jadeja ($950,000) rather than invest in Ganguly's experience. The franchises believe that even some one like David Jacobs with his acrobatic keeping and batting skills or a Piyush Chawla who hasn't done much brings in more to the table than someone like
Ganguly. Chris Gayle was another player who remained unsold largely because Pakistan's tour of West Indies clashes with the
IPL. However Kings XI going for Piyush Chawla at $900,000 rather than Graeme Swann who is considered as the best off-spinner in the world.
— PTI |
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Injury woes for India ahead of T20 against SAfrica
Durban, January 8 However, the final Test took its toll as opener Gautam Gambhir, who had come back from a hand injury after skipping the second Test, hurt his elbow at Newlands and was ruled out. The other opener Virender Sehwag was already sidelined for the rest of the tour as a precautionary measure due to a sore shoulder which had kept him out of action for quite a few weeks last year as well. Besides Gambhir and Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar is the only recognised opener in the squad but he has played only one T20 international in his career, against South Africa at Johannesburg in 2006. The senior batsman has also not figured in an ODI since February last year and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni will have to sort out the opening slots as soon as possible. Tomorrow's match will also see the return of left-handers Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina in the middle order. A lot of focus will also be on Yuvraj Singh who comes back to the venue where he famously hit six successive sixes against England's Stuart Broad during the 2007 T20 World Cup. Raina, who hit a bad patch recently and was dropped from the side after the first Test, will also look to prove his worth before the ODI World Cup next month. Virat Kohli, who hit three of his four ODI centuries in 2010, and Yusuf Pathan, who cracked his maiden one-day hundred against New Zealand last December, will also return to boost the batting order. Among bowlers, Zaheer Khan and S Sreesanth will lead the pace attack, which will also have seamers Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar and Munaf Patel. In the spin department, off-spinner Harbhajan Singh will look to continue his red-hot form, while Ravichandran Ashwin and comeback man Piyush Chawla will look to raise their stake before next month's World Cup. South Africa, on the other hand, were dealt a severe blow yesterday when Smith was ruled out from tomorrow's match because of hand bruises and the onus now would be on new skipper Johan Botha to inspire the side.
— PTI |
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SAF Games: Indian team threatens to pull out Dehradun, January 8 “We were given big demo cheques after the championship concluded and were asked to give our respective bank account numbers to transfer the prize money. However even after doing so we haven’t been paid and the organisers are unnecessarily delaying the matter,” said ice hockey player Iqbal Mian. “We have brought the matter to their (WGFI) notice several times but they are just ignoring us. Now we are only left with the option of pulling out of the SAF Games if our prize money is not given to us,” added Sonam Pallan, ITBP ice skating team captain, who is also part of the national team. The players said the ice hockey gold, silver and bronze medallists were given demo cheques of worth Rs 100,000, 60,000 and 40,000 respectively. The gold, silver and bronze medallists in speed skating and figure skating were supposed to get Rs 50,000, 30,000 and 20,000 respectively. Also, the national team players who had stayed back for practice after the National Ice Skating Open competition haven’t been allowed to go to the rink since then.
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Bangalore, January 8
