Bangalore, January 9
Reputations counted for little as former India captain Sourav Ganguly and several other big names found no takers for the fourth edition of the IPL even as unheralded Australian Daniel Christian was bought for an astounding $ 900,000 (RS 4.14 crore apprx) on the second day of the auction here today.

Veteran Sri Lankan batsman Sanath Jayasuriya also failed to find a buyer today joining a high-profile list of unsold players which included among others West Indies batting great Brian Lara, Chris Gayle, Mark Boucher and Graeme Swann. Ganguly's name, in fact, did not even come up in the second round of bidding, the players for which were handpicked by the franchises, prompting angry fans to stage protests against his former team Kolkata Knight Riders in the Bengal capital. A total of 241 of the 353 players in fray went unsold in the first round of auctions, which spanned over two days. 28 players came up for a re-auctioning on the request of the franchises but again some of them strangely went unsold.

New Zealand's hard-hitting batsman Jesse Ryder (Pune, $150,000), spinner Murali Karthik (Pune, $400,000) and Mohammad Kaif (Bangalore, $130,000) were among the lucky 12 who managed to sneak through into the cash-rich event. At the end of the two-day auction all the franchises still had some money left from the USD nine million cap on a rather dull second day considering that Gautam Gambhir had gone for a record Rs 11.04 crore to KKR on the first day. In a relatively low-key day, it was Christian who hogged the limelight as he was bought by Deccan 18 times more than his base price of USD 50,000.

No one could have even imagined that the 27-year-old from New South Wales will go for such a high price. He has played just three Twenty20 internationals for Australia and is primarily a fast bowler who can hit a long way in the lower order.

"We believe Dan Christian is a good buy. He is good fast bowler and a decent batsman. He is also a brilliant fielder," Deccan Chargers owner Gayathri Reddy said. Delhi Daredevils were the biggest gainers as they snapped up fringe fast bowlers. Umesh Yadav, who had a base price of USD 50,000, went for a whopping USD 750,000 while pacers Ashok Dinda (USD 375,000) and Ajit Agarkar (USD 210,000) were bought by Delhi Daredevils. Munaf Patel was bought by Mumbai Indians for USD 700,000 (apprx Rs 3.1 crore). Ranganath Vinay Kumar was bought by Kochi for USD 475,000 while Manpreet Gony was bought by Deccan for USD 290,000.

However, paceman VRV Singh was a prominent Indian player who went unsold.

Chennai Super Kings, who have been on a retention mode, also got back Sudeep Tyagi (USD 240,000), Joginder Sharma (USD 150,000) while roping in Suraj Randiv for as cheap as USD 80,000. However, it was Kolkata Knight Riders who poached L Balaji from CSK for USD 500,000. KKR retained Jaidev Unadkat buying him for USD 250,000. There were a few surprises also as unfancied Netherlands cricketer Ryan ten Doeschate was bought for USD 150,000 by Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Doeschate was ICC's Associate Player of the Year. Another surprising pick was India discard Venugopal Rao getting a staggering deal of USD 700,000 (Rs 3.22 crore) from Delhi Daredevils. Sahara Pune Warriors, who remained quiet for the better part of the first session, got a good deal in South African pacer Wayne Parnell (USD 160,000) and West Indian Jerome Taylor (USD 100,000).

There was some stiff bidding between Pune and Kings XI Punjab for Australian Mitchell Marsh. However, the junior-most Marsh will play for Pune under his father Geoff Marsh's tutelage rather than being a teammate of his elder brother Shaun. Michael Yardy of England, Jacob Oram and Kyle Mills of New Zealand, Ravi Bopara, Monty Panesar and Tim Bresnan of England and Fervez Mahroof of Sri Lanka, Shivnarine Chanderpaul of West Indies, Makhaya Ntini and Lonwabo Tsotsobe of South Africa were among the prominent players who went unsold today.

After the lunch session, maximum players went unsold save South African batsman Francois du Plessis who was taken by Chennai Super KIngs at USD 120,000. Another surprise was Alfonso Thomas who was taken by Sahara Pune Warriors for USD 100,000. KKR bought Australian quick James Pattinson. Like yesterday, Indians were the hot picks for the franchises but the bidding war never quite touched the frenzy it did yesterday, when apart from Gambhir three others went for more than USD two million.

Gambhir's mind-boggling deal with KKR beat the previous high set by the English duo of Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff (USD 1.55 million) last season. — PTI 

Key moments of the day

11 AM: The first player up for sale wicketkeeper Indika de Saram from Sri Lanka. Base price $20,000. No bids.

11.06 AM: Matthew Wade sold to Delhi for $100,000.

11.10 AM: Sanath Jayasuriya, base price of $200,000. He was bought in 2008 for 975,000 but doesn't atract a bid this time.

11:11 AM: Dan Christian, Australian allrounder, is next. Base price of $50,000. Deccan and Kochi are interested. The bid is at 100,000 already and rising. Dan Christian sold to Deccan Chargers for 900,000.

11:17 AM: Ravi Bopara, England allrounder, base price $200,000. He was with Punjab in previous seasons. No bids for Bopara.

11:18 AM: Jacob Oram, formerly of Chennai, is next. Base price $200,000. Will Chennai want him back? No bids for Jacob Oram.

11:23 AM: Delhi bag Ajit Agarkar for $210,000.

11:25 AM: Bangalore buy Langeveldt for $140,000.

11:29 AM: Vinaykumar to Kochi for $475,000. SOLD!

11:32 AM: Ashok Dinda sold to Delhi for $375,000.

11:36 AM: Mumbai buy Munaf for $700,000.

11:37: Rajasthan buy back Shaun Tait at base price of $300,000.

11:43: SOLD. Umesh Yadav to Delhi for $750,000.

11:49 AM: Kolkata buy L Balaji for $500,000.

12:11 PM: Ian Bell, Ashes hero, base price $100,000. No bids for him either.

12:14 PM: Mohammad Kaif Base price $100,000. There are no early bids ... there are no bids. Kaif unsold.

12:20 PM: Venugopal Rao sold to Delhi for $700,000.

12:28: Chennai buy Styris for $200,000.

12:33 PM: Ben Hilfenhaus sold to Chennai at base price of $100,000.

12:41: Kolkata buy Jaidev Unadkat for $250,000. 12:48 PM: Deccan buy Gony for $290,000.

12:52 PM: Chennai buy Joginder Sharma at $150,000.

12:56 PM: Wayne Parnell to Pune for $160,000.

12:58 PM: Bangalore buy Abhimanyu Mithun for $260,000. This is the first Karnataka player that Bangalore has bought.

1:00 PM: Chaminda Vaas, Sri Lankan champion but a bit old at the moment. He was with Deccan. Base price this time is $100,000. No bidders for Vaas.

1:04 PM: Chennai buy back Sudeep Tyagi for $240,000.

1:07 PM: Tim Southee, New Zealand fast bowler but also a useful batsman, base price $100,000.

1:24 PM: Chennai buy Suraj Randiv for $80,000.

1:28 PM: Simon Katich, Australian opener who played for Punjab, base price $100,000. No takers.

1:28 PM: Shivnarine Chanderpaul, base price $100,000. No bid.

1:30 PM: Kochi buy Owais Shah for $ 200, 000.

1:39 PM: Kolkata buy Ryan ten Doeschate for $150,000.

1:42 PM: Pune buy Mitchell Marsh for $290,000. He will not play with his brother but he will play under his father, Geoff Marsh, who is Pune's coach.

1:50 PM: Lonwabo Tsotsobe, South Africa fast bowler, base price $50,000. He's quite fashionable but gets no bids.

1:50 PM: Makhaya Ntini, who will be playing his last game for South Africa today, base price $100,000. He was with Chennai previously. He gets no bids.

1:50 PM: Ryan Sidebottom of England. Base price $200,000. Goes unsold.

1:58 PM: VRV Singh, who played for Punjab, base price $100,000. He's had severe injury trouble of late and has missed a lot of domestic cricket. That's probably why he's the first Indian fast bowler not to attract a bid.

3:14 PM: Phillip Hughes from Australia, base price $100,000. Unsold.

3:16 PM: Mohammad Ashraful, who was with Mumbai at one point, base price $50,000. Another Bangladesh player unsold.

3:25 PM: Stuart Clark, Australia fast bowler, base price $100,000. If Australia doesn't want him, the IPL doesn't either. Unsold.

3:51 PM: Mashrafe Mortaza, Bangladesh allrounder, who had franchises fighting over him in 2009, gets no bids this time. Unsold at $100,000.

3:56 PM: Phil Jaques, from Australia, at $50,000. No bidders.

4:05 PM: CJ de Villiers, a promising South African fast bowler, base price $20,000. No bids

4:29 PM: Chennai buy Faf du Plessis for $120,000!!

5:25 PM: Pune buy Jesse Ryder for $150,000. SOLD

5:30 PM: Mohammad Kaif, Indian batsman, base price, $100,000. Can we launch an investigation into this farce? No bids again for Kaif.

5:33 PM: Pune buy Murali Kartik for $400,000.

5:41 PM: SOLD. Dimitri Mascarenhars to Punjab for $100,000.

5:52 PM: Nathan Rimmington gets a second go. He's from Australia. Base price $20,000. Punjab make the first and only bid. SOLD

6:02 PM: Mohammad Kaif is back in. How lucky is he. Mohammad Kaif is the last player sold in the IPL auction. To Bangalore for $130,000.

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS: 1. R Ashwin for 850,000 2. S Badrinath for 800,000 3. Doug Bollinger for 700,000 4. Michael Hussey for 425,000 5. Dwayne Bravo at 200,000 6. Wriddhiman Saha for 100,000 7. Sudeep Tyagi for 240,000 8. Scott Styris for 200,000 9. Faf du Plessis for 120,000 10. Ben Hilfenhaus for 100,00

DECCAN CHARGERS: 1. Dale Steyn for 1.2 million 2. Cameron White for 1.1 million 3. Kumar Sangakkara for 700,000 4. Kevin Pietersen for 650,000 5. Pragyan Ojha for 500,000 6. Ishant Sharma for 450,000 7. Amit Mishra for 300,000 8. JP Duminy for 300,000 9. Shikhar Dhawan for 300,000 10. Dan Christian for 900,000 11. Manpreet Goni for 290,000

DELHI DAREDEVILS: 1. Irfan Pathan for 1.9 million 2. David Warner for 750,000 3. Morne Morkel for 475,000 4. James Hopes for 350,000 5. Aaron Finch for 300,000 6. Naman Ojha for 270,000 7. Umesh Yadav for 750,000 8. Venugopal Rao for 700,000 9. Ashok Dinda for 375,000

KINGS XI PUNJAB: 1. David Hussey for 1.4 million 2. Adam Gilchrist for 900,000 3. Dinesh Karthik for 900,000 4. Piyush Chawla for 900,000 5. Abhishek Nayar at 800,000 6. Praveen Kumar for 800,000 7. Stuart Broad for 400,000 8. Ryan Harris for 325,000 9. Dmitri Mascarenhas 1,00,000

KOCHI: 1. Mahela Jayawardene for 1.5 million 2. Muttiah Muralitharan for 1.1 million 3. Ravindra Jadeja for 950,00 4. S Sreesanth for 900,000 5. RP Singh for 500,000 6. Brendon McCullum for 475,000 7. Brad Hodge for 425,000 8. VVS Laxman for 400,000 9. Parthiv Patel for 290,000 10. Steven Smith for 200,000 11. Ramesh Powar for 180,000 12. R Vinaykumar for 475,000 13. Steven O'Keefe for 20,000, Owais Shah 2,00,000

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS: 1. Gautam Gambhir sold to for a record 2.4 million 2. Yusuf Pathan for 2.1 million 3. Jacques Kallis for 1.1 million 4. Manoj Tiwary for 475,000 5. Shakib-al Hasan for 425,000 6. Brett Lee for 400,000 7. Eoin Morgan for 350,000 8. Brad Haddin for 325,000 9. Jaidev Unadkat for 250,000 10. Lakshmipathy Balaji for 500,000

MUMBAI INDIANS: 1. Rohit Sharma for USD 2 million 2. Andrew Symonds for 850,000 3. Davy Jacobs for 190,000 4. James Franklin for 100,000 5. Munaf Patel for 700,000 6. Clint McKay for 110,000

PUNE WARRIORS: 1. Robin Uthappa for 2.1 million 2. Yuvraj Singh for 1.8 million 3. Angelo Mathews for 950,000 4. Ashish Nehra for 850,000 5. Graeme Smith for 500,000 6. Callum Ferguson for 300,000 7. Tim Paine for 270,000 8. Nathan McCullum for 100,000 9. Jerome Taylor for 100,000 10. Wayne Parnell for 160,000 11. Mitchell Marsh for 290,000 12. Murli Kartik for 400,000

RAJASTHAN ROYALS: 1. Ross Taylor for 1 million 2. Johan Botha for 950,000 3. Rahul Dravid for 500,000 4. Paul Collingwood for 250,000 5. Shaun Tait for 300,000 6. Pankaj Singh for 95,000

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE: 1. Saurabh Tiwary for 1.6 million 2. AB de Villiers to for 1.1 million 3. Zaheer Khan for 900,000 4. Cheteswar Pujara for 700,000 5. Dirk Nannes for USD 650,000 6. Tillakaratne Dilshan for USD 650,000 7. Daniel Vettori for USD 550,000 8. Mohammad Kaif for USD 130,000 9. Charl Langeveldt for 140,000 10. Abhimanyu Mithun for 260,000.

New Delhi, January 9
The phrase 'glorious uncertainties' has long been associated to cricket. The Indian Premier League has lived up to it again, this time through its auction. But one thing was more or less decided -- none of the Indian players bought would have to worry about buying onions. They can afford it now, even if they couldn't earlier.

One certainly however came out to the forefront. Sourav Ganguly is no longer in demand. Neither is Chris Gayle. But if one were to be brutally honest, the first one isn't such a surprise after all.

Take the case of Umesh Yadav. He was bought by his home franchise Delhi Daredevils, for $750,000, a figure he cannot possibly fathom. So effectively, if her were to quit cricket after two years, he would still be able to buy onions for a long time. Even if it were to be converted into Indian currency, Rs. 3.45 crore doesn't sound particularly comprehensible either.

Then there is the care of Australian Daniel Christian. The 27-year-old New South Welshman sent many of the franchisees scurrying, with Team Kochi and Deccan Chargers going hammer and tongs for the cricketer. Maybe their Australian connections know something we don't since Christian ended up being the top buy for Day Two, to the Hyderabad side for $900,000 (Rs. 4.14 crore).

But the maximum interest, as the day passed, was on the re-bid towards the evening. That went on to prove two things -- one, that the franchise owners largely are clueless on who they really want and two, there was surely someone else listing out which players the franchises wanted to 'recall'.

So no recall for Dada, but he isn't one to vanish into the sunset. Or, he has some deal fixed somewhere which pays him more, without swinging a bat. Don't be too surprised.

Murali Kartik would be a bit relieved that there was some surprise about him not being selected. He has done well in T20 cricket, be it the IPL or in the United Kingdom. He was one of the saving graces for Kolkata Knight Riders over the last couple of seasons, so it was actually great to see the Pune team acknowledge that.

But over the two days, there have been some mysteries that still can't be fathomed. Irfan Pathan has been a disaster in every format over the past two years, and he got $1.9 million. Abhiskek Nayar went at 16 times his base price of $50,000, to Kings XI Punjab, who bought little on the second day. Not sure who decides who's to be bought, since new coach Michael Bevan couldn't possibly have seen Nayar.

In any case, few of the players would be disappointed, but most largely would be awestruck at their own selling powers. So uncertainty and surprises continue. This is cricket, after all.

Scoreboard
India

Kohli b Botha 28

Vijay c van Wyk b Parnell 14

Rohit c Ntini b Duminy 53

Yuvraj run out 12

Yusuf b Theron 6

Raina c Miller b Theron 41

Dhoni not out 10

Extras: 4

Total (6 wickets; 20 overs) 168

Bowling: Parnell 4-0-25-1, Ntini 4-0-46-0, Theron 4-0-39-2, Peterson 3-0-20-0, Botha 3-0-25-1, Duminy 2-0-12-1.

South Africa

van Wyk c Nehra b Praveen 67

Amla b Nehra 1

Ingram c Praveen b Munaf 2

de Villiers run out 14

Duminy lbw b Yuvraj 0

Miller lbw b Yusuf 10

Botha c Rohit b Nehra 25

Peterson c Kohli b Yusuf 2

Parnell c Yusuf b Ashwin 14

Theron not out 1

Ntini not out 1

Extras (b 4, lb 3, w 3) 10

Total (9 wickets; 20 overs) 147

Bowling: Praveen 3-0-17-1, Nehra 4-0-22-2, Munaf 2-0-26-1, Ashwin 4-0-33-1, Yuvraj 4-0-20-1, Yusuf 3-0-22-2.

Dehradun, January 9
The first ever South Asian Federation (SAF) Winter Games are all set for a spectacular opening here tomorrow at the ice skating rink here. The Winter Games will be inaugurated by Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports M.S. Gill, while Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia will be there at the concluding ceremony at Auli on January 16.

Renowned Sufi singer Kailash Kher along with his troupe will perform at the opening ceremony. A march-past by teams on the beats of an Army band, folk dances from various States, the hoisting of the Games flag, ice skating speed demo, musical performance, Sufi Kathak by Manjari Chaturvedi and a fusion of Bharat Natyam and figure skating by the US-based Ami Parikh will be the major highlights of the opening ceremony.

The Games are to be held in two phases. The ice skating events will be held from January 10 to 12 here while skiing events are to be organised from January 14 to 16 at Auli in Chamoli district. Prakash Chand Thapliyal, spokesperson of the SAF Winter Games, said a total of seven countries — hosts India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, the Maldives and Sri Lanka are taking part in these Games. Afghanistan were also to participate but due to some problems back home they couldn’t make it. According to S.S.

Patwal, President of SAF Winter Games Federation, all preparations have been made for the successful hosting of the Games. “This is the first time we are hosting the event and its a kind of a test event for us. After the SAF games, we will bid for the Junior Asian Championship here and will organise even more bigger tournaments in future.”

Meanwhile after the SAF Games, the national team that will take part in the seventh Asian Winter Games to be held in Kazakhstan

Governor sees potential in region

Uttarakhand Governor Margaret Alva said Auli skiing slopes have all the potential to become the most favoured winter sports destination in the world here today at the closing ceremony of the Auli Open Skiing Championship.

She said there were very a few numbers of places in the world as beautiful as Auli. "This is for the first time that Auli has been projected at an international scale.