IPL 5 auction: Chennai Super Kings buy Ravindra Jadeja for whopping $2 million in tie-breaker

NEW DELHI: Dashing wicketkeeper-batsman Brendon McCullum was the first to be auctioned as he was bought for $900,000 by Kolkata Knight Riders followed by the Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, who was clinched by Chennai Super Kings for whopping $2 million in the tie-breaker. 

Who got whom | Batsmen | Bowlers | All-rounders | Wicket-keepers 

Meanwhile, KKR co-owner Shah Rukh Khan tweeted: Feel shy sitting on auction table with all the bigwigs...so waiting outside and enjoying a cuppa coffee & brendon return to team... 

Royal Challengers Bangalore bought seamer R Vinay Kumar, who had a base price $100,000, for $1 million. 

Fast bowler RP Singh, who had a base price of $200,000, was bought by Mumbai Indians for $600,000. 

Jadeja, who had a base price of $100,000, was bagged in a tie-breaker between Super Kings and Deccan Chargers. 

The $2 million budget cap for the auction means Super Kings have spent all their money on a single player and cannot participate in the auction any more. 

Delhi Daredevils bought all-rounder Andre Russel, who had a base price of $50,000, for $450,000 while Mitchell Johnson was bought at his base price by the Mumbai Indians for $300,000. 

Deccan Chargers bought Parthiv Patel, who had a base price of $200,000, for $650,000 after quite a fight with the other franchises. 

Rajasthan Royal bought Bradley Hodge for $475,000. Sri Lankan master batsman Mahela Jayawardene has been bought by Delhi Daredevils for $1.4 million. 

Mumbai Indians bought Herschelle Gibbs for $50,000 while Dinesh Chandimal bought by Rajasthan Royals for $50,000. Both the players have been bought on their base prices. 

Muttiah Muralitharan was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore for $200,000 while England's paceman James Anderson was the first to go unsold in the IPL 5 auction. 

Darren Bravo, Ian Bell, Upul Tharanga, Adrian Barath, Tamim Iqbal and VVS Laxman went unsold at the IPL 5 auction. 

A total of 146 players will be auctioned for the available 29 slots as the auction for the fifth edition of the Indian Premier League got underway in Bangalore. 

The auction got a big twist just hours before the players' auction after Sahara India pulled out from the ownership of IPL franchise Pune Warriors. 

Sahara India has been denied replacement for injured Yuvraj Singh for the upcoming fifth edition of Indian Premier League. 

"It was an emotional decision for us to start this sponsorship but our emotions were never appreciated and many genuine situations were not given due consideration at all," Sahara said. 

Sahara India also requested BCCI to pass on Pune Warriors team to some other interested party immediately. 

The franchises have a maximum of $2 million to spend at the auction as they bid to strengthen their line-ups ahead of the tournament which will be played between April 4 and May 27. 

The exceptions are Bangalore and Pune, which have already spent some money retaining their respective 'replacements', Chris Gayle and Sourav Ganguly. 

The auction will be conducted by Richard Madley, a professional auctioneer from England who has conducted each of the previous IPL player auctions. 

The 2012 auction happens to be the cheapest of the five so far. The purse has been tightened keeping the cricketers and vacancies in mind.

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Sahara withdraws Indian cricket team sponsorship and Pune Warriors ownership

NEW DELHI: In a surprise development, the Indian cricket team's longtime sponsor Sahara India on Saturday ended financial ties with theBCCI and also pulled out of the IPL by withdrawing from Pune Warriors' ownership just hours before the players' auction. 

Sahara, which has been the team sponsor for 11 years, signed a renewed agreement with the BCCI on July 1, 2010 till December 31, 2013. 

Sahara was paying Rs 3.34 crore per Test match, one-day international and Twenty20 international under the new terms. 

"...after an 11-year journey as sponsors, we can say with surety that cricket has become very rich. Many rich people are there to support cricket with a strong will to do so. So, with absolute peace of mind we can exit from cricket under BCCI and are exiting with a heavy heart," Sahara India said in a statement. 

"It was an emotional decision for us to start this sponsorship but our emotions were never appreciated and many genuine situations were not given due consideration at all," the statement read. 

Sahara, which entered the cash-rich IPL bandwagon last year along with the now-disbanded Kochi Tuskers Kerala, complained that several requests put forth by it with regards to players and the number of matches were not accepted by the BCCI. 

"Our first entry into IPL was thwarted in 2008 when we were disqualified, owing to a small technicality on the whims and fancies of BCCI. Yet our Bid was not opened," the statement said.

"Last year, Sahara entered the IPL on the basis of information in the media and everywhere else that 94 matches will be played among 10 teams. The bid price was accordingly calculated, but only 74 matches were played. We are still pursuing continuously with the BCCI to refund the extra bid money proportionately. It has been denied on the basis of strict rules. 

"In the interest of the tournament, we repeatedly tried our best to pursue the BCCI for open auction of all players so that we achieve level playing field and all teams are equally balanced from the quality players' point of view. Again, as per BCCI's strict rules it was denied and again, we were deprived of natural justice. 12 of the best players were retained by the existing teams then," it added. 

"The two new teams then requested for allowing us at least one extra foreign player but that too was denied, quoting rules." 

Sahara's marquee player in the IPL is skipper Yuvraj Singh, who is currently recovering from tumour in the lungs. 

His unavailability in the IPL this season prompted Sahara to ask the BCCI that the price of the batsman be added to their overall purse for the players auction but the request was turned down.

"Yuvraj Singh, who is truly like one of our family members, is, quite unfortunately, passing through a bad phase health wise, undergoing treatment for critical illness, overseas. 

"Our duty is to take care of him, so Sahara has decided to pay him his full fee this year with condition as a Guardian that his priority should be health care and he should not play till he has fully recovered," the company stated. 

"We requested the BCCI on the basis of the fact that we have only one Indian marquee player, that we be allowed to add price of Yuvraj Singh in our auction purse, during the February 4 auction because we had later taken Sourav Ganguly at 0.4 million. 

"Again, we have been denied on the basis of the rule book. Yet again, a case of being denied natural justice. We think this peculiar situation of Shri Yuvraj Singh is silent in the rule book because it probably talks only about players who are temporarily injured." 

Sahara is apparently also unhappy with the fact that Royal Challengers Bangalore were allowed to buy replacement player Chris Gayle this season. 

"The manner in which Gayle was bought was not liked by many franchises including Sahara," a Sahara official said on condition of anonymity. 

Sahara said even during the Champions League Twenty20, an injury-plagued Mumbai Indians were allowed to field an extra foreign player due to the crisis in the team but such gestures were never extended to Pune Warriors. 

"Incidentally, once during the Champions League, one of the Indian IPL teams had a lot of injured players so they were rightly, out of natural justice, allowed to break the rules and take one extra foreign player. We appreciated this natural justice," it said. 

"We really feel such one-sided emotional relationship cannot be dragged any further. We are withdrawing from all cricket under BCCI," it added. 

But the company said that it would pay its sponsorship free for the next few months giving time to the BCCI to find a new sponsor. It also promised to pay the dues of its IPL players and staff. 

"We don't want to give any problem to the BCCI and we also feel that the players should not suffer. BCCI will definitely take 2-4 months to get a new sponsor and we will continue paying the sponsorship money till then," it said. 

"All other IPL team players, coaches and other such associates will definitely get their due this year, in case they do not get a chance to play," it said. 

Detailing what it felt were the BCCI's attempts at slighting the company, Sahara was also unhappy about the fact that its logo was removed from the team shirt during the 2003 World Cup and a couple of other tournaments on directives of the ICC. 

"Once during a World Cup tournament, Sahara's name was not allowed because there was a clash of our Airline with a South African airline. In two major tournaments, the team had to play without the Sahara logo," Sahara said. 

"It was ICC's decision so we could realise that it was for no fault of BCCI and we also did not want the players to suffer. As per the rules, we were not supposed to pay sponsorship money for those matches but we still paid the players share of the amount in entirety. Sadly, we never found BCCI believing in genuine give and take," the company stated. 

Having withdrawn from cricket under BCCI, Sahara said it would put in Rs. 1000 crore in a welfare foundation. 

"We are very happy to take a decision that the cricket money will be diverted to social work. We are declaring to put immediately Rs. 500 crore in Sahara Welfare Foundation, which will be run with the association of eminent persons of our country. For the programme as mentioned below, Sahara declares to put around Rs. 500 crore more in the next 1-2 years as per the need of all the programmes," the company said. 

"We are working on various programmes including financial implications etc since we have taken this decision after continuous persuasion with the BCCI failed, meaning on the February 2, 2012. But we waited upto the auction day that our request to BCCI would be accepted. But again, there was no natural justice." 

Sahara said it would develop "20 Rural/Semi Urban Sports Promotional Centres including Rural/Semi Urban Cricket promotional Centres." 

"Centres will have diversified sports disciplines viz. cricket, hockey, soccer, formula1, tennis, golf, wrestling, boxing etc. One international standard sports academy shall immediately be developed at one point in India. All best selected students shall ultimately come to this International Class Sports Academy." 

Sahara also announced that a support fund for old (retired) and present players who, at times, face "miserable days regarding medical bills, girls marriage, shelter etc." 

"Every year minimum 10 crore will be distributed - Rs 3 crore for cricketers. Rs 7 Crore for all other disciplines." 

"We shall discuss with other federations where we are sponsoring different disciplines of sports and as per the genuine need for better promotion, we shall enhance the sponsorship amount."

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Win over England not revenge, says Dhoni

Mohali, (AFP): India's One-day series win over England should not be regarded as revenge for the side's humiliating defeats to their rivals a few months ago, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has said. The Indian captain added he was disappointed atEngland's behaviour on the field, saying the strategy to intimidate the opposition was clearly not paying dividends.

"Revenge is a very strong word and should not be used in sport," Dhoni said after the world champions scored a five-wicket win in Mohali on Thursday night to take a 3-0 lead in the five-match series. "On one hand we talk about the spirit of the game and on the other we talk about revenge. It should not be like that."

Young batsman Ajinkya Rahane top-scored with 91 as India surpassed England's challenging 298-4 with four balls to spare after Dhoni smashed two boundaries in the final over.

The series win came after a disastrous tour of England in July-September when India were blanked 4-0 in the Tests to concede the number one spot and also lost the one-dayers 3-0. "I am quite happy with the performance of the team when it comes to the one-day format. Victory is always a good feeling," said Dhoni, who led India to World Cup glory in April.

India won without seven top stars, including Sachin Tendulkar, who were part of the team that beat Sri Lanka in the World Cup final in Mumbai. Dhoni, however, warnedEngland to tone down their aggressive behaviour on the field, which earned the wrath of the umpires during the second game in New Delhi on Monday.

That match was marred by verbal exchanges between Indian batsmen and England's fielders, and the tension also appeared to spill over on the field in Mohali.

"There were lots of gestures flowing around in the field when it came to the Englandside," Dhoni said. "But I don't think that strategy is working. It's not only about 'giving it' to the opposition. You have to be fair. If our players are saying something to the opposition, which happens at times, I don't want them to get really personal or say things that are not within the guidelines."

"A bit of chit-chat is fine, because that makes the game interesting. You don't always want a friendly series, as long as things don't get too personal. "But I think they (England) should change the plan for the next two games," the Indian captain said.

England fast bowler Tim Bresnan was quoted earlier this week as saying that his team was using verbal volleys to intimidate batsmen since Indian pitches offered no assistance to the bowlers.

"It's part of the game," Bresnan said. "We can't really use the ball to intimidate as much as we would like, so we have to do other things to get into the batsman's bubble, like a little bit of a word or a look or a stare."

England captain Alastair Cook was, however, more concerned about trying to avoid a 5-0 whitewash. "We prepared as well as we could have prepared, but just have not quite delivered," Cook said.

"But we've got two more games to go and need to pick ourselves up when we've already lost the series. That is the challenge. There was desperation out there to try to win, and we've got to keep that desperation for the next two games."

The fourth one-dayer will be played in Mumbai on Sunday before the final game in Kolkata on October 25. Englandwill end the tour with a one-off Twenty20 international in Kolkata on Oct 29.

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