Ravindra Jadeja on Saturday expectedly turned out to be the biggest draw for the franchises with Chennai Super Kings buying the young Indian all-rounder for a whopping $two million (approx. Rs 9.72 crore) in the players' auction for the fifth edition of the
Indian Premier League.
The 23-year-old, whose base price was $100,000, went to Chennai after the tie-breaker clause was invoked when two teams - CSK and Deccan Chargers - bid the maximum (USD two million) for the Saurashtra player.
Both the franchises were asked to bid a secret amount in the tie-breaker and it was Chennai which managed to outbid Deccan in this.
But the cricketer himself will get paid $950,000 as per the contract he had signed with the now-disbanded Kochi Tuskers Kerala last year and even the secret amount that was bid on him by Chennai would go into the BCCI coffers.
Former Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene, incidentally the KTK captain last season, was also a big draw going to Delhi Daredevils for $1.4 million (approx Rs 6.8 crore).
Jayawardene will, however, get $1.5 million as per his contract last year.
Among other big gainers at the auction, New Zealand wicketkeeper-batsman Brendon McCullum was bought for $900,000 by Kolkata Knight Riders. McCullum's base price was $400,000.
Indian stumper Parthiv Patel went for $650,000 to Deccan Chargers, which was quite high from his base price of $200,000.
Veteran Indian batsman VVS Laxman, who was a big disappointment during the recent Test series against Australia, went unsold in the auction along with England's James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara and Matt Prior, West Indies' Ramnaresh Sarwan, Adrian Barath and Darren Bravo and South Africa's Mark Boucher. .
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