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28 March 2024

IPL 7 player auction: Yuvraj hits jackpot, Delhi snap up England discard Pietersen

Published
By Cricket Correspondent and Agencies

England may have jettisoned Kevin Pietersen but the maverick batsman's hard-hitting ability fetched him the highest bid among foreign players at Wednesday's Indian Premier League (IPL) auction.

Pietersen, available for the entire duration of the cash-rich IPL after being shunned by England, was picked up by Delhi, the franchise he played for last year, for 90 million Indian rupees (881 thousand pounds) after an intense bidding war.

The Chennai, Hyderabad and Punjab franchises bid heavily for the 33-year-old, whose base price was 20 million Indian rupees (195,210 pounds) , but Delhi bagged his services after using their right to match the highest bid.

"Morning - so happy to be back with the Delhi family! Lovely start to the day," Pietersen, the former England captain, said on his Twitter account.

India's Yuvraj Singh drew the highest bid of 140 million Indian rupees (1.36 million pounds) in the morning session of the auction and was bought by the Vijay Mallya-owned Bangalore franchise.

Yuvraj fetched a record bid of Rs 14 crore from the Royal Challengers Bangalore while Dinesh Karthik also clinched a mind-boggling Rs 12.5 crore purse from Delhi Daredevils on Wednesday.

Both Yuvraj and Karthik, who are not even regular members of the Indian team, triggered stunning bidding wars among the franchises to set a new record in earnings in the cash-rich league.

They surpassed the Rs 11.04 crore that was bid on Gautam Gambhir in 2011, the highest till now.

New Zealand all-rounder Corey Anderson, who scored the fastest ODI century smashing a 36-ball ton to breach the record set by Shahid Afridi in 1996, expectedly got a decent package of Rs 4.5 crore with the Mumbai Indians.

Australian pacer Mitchell Johnson (Rs 6.5 crore, Kings XI Punjab), all-rounder Glenn Maxwell (Rs 6 crore, Kings XI Punjab), Indian opener Murali Vijay (Rs 5 crore, Delhi Daredevils), South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis (Rs 5.5 crore, Kolkata Knight Riders), Robin Uthappa (Rs 5 crore, KKR), West Indian batsman Dwayne Smith (Rs 4.5 crore, Chennai Super Kings), Amit Mishra (Rs 4.25 crore, Sunrisers Hyderabad) and Aaron Finch (Rs 4 crore, SRH) were some of the players who triggered intense bidding in the auction.

"It's a grand affair and every edition IPL has grown bigger. The seventh edition would be no exception, it will be grander and more entertaining for fans and franchises," IPL chairman Ranjib Biswal said before the start of the star-studded auction where Bollywood actors and business tycoons were present.

Actress Preity Zinta, co-owner of Kings XI Punjab, Juhi Chawla, co-owner of Kolkata Knight Riders, businessman Vijay Mallya, Nita Ambani (Mumbai Indians), cricketers Rahul Dravid (Rajasthan Royals), Anil Kumble (Mumbai Indians) were among the celebrities present at the auction which was beamed live.

Former Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene, former New Zealand skipper Ross Taylor, Australian T20 specialist Cameron White, who captained SRH for a while last season, West Indian Marlon Samuels, pacer Daniel Christian and England batsman Ian Bell surprisingly found no buyers in the first day of bidding.

Australian wicketkeeper Matthew Wade, batsman David Hussey and retired pacer Brett Lee also suffered a similar fate but all the unsold players can come back into auction on Thursday.

"The team is looking stronger with him," said RCB co-owner Vijay Mallya even though he admitted that he ended up paying Rs 4 crore more than what he had planned.

Veteran Indian opener Virender Sehwag (base price Rs 2 crore), who had been released by Delhi, went to Kings XI Punjab for Rs 3.2 crore. T

The India discard's name was all set to be hammered in as unsold before Punjab bought his services fending off bids from Mumbai Indians.

Australian all-rounder Steve Smith was bought by Rajasthan Royals for Rs 4 crore while Sri Lankan Thisara Perera went to Kings XI Punjab for Rs 1.6 crore.

Hard-hitting Indian all-rounder Yusuf Pathan was re-bought by KKR for Rs 3.25 crore, South Africa's Quinton de Kock was grabbed by Delhi Daredevils for Rs 3.5 crore.

Interestingly, many of the Sri Lankans cricketers went unsold largely because of their unavailability for the entire duration of the IPL 7, which is clashing with their tour of England and Ireland.

The players will sign a one-year contract with their respective franchises, who have the discretion to extend them by two more years.

The salary cap for the IPL fees of the entire squad has been fixed for Rs 60 crore this year which will be increased by five per cent in 2015 and 2016.

KKR and MI have to buy six players, RR have to buy five, KXIP and RR could purchase four more players while DD, CSK and SRH have the option of buying three more players.

Out of a total of 216 players who went under the hammer 146 were not sold.

The biggest winners were Yuvraj, Pietersen, Dinesh Karthik, Mitchell Johnson and Maxwell.

Some of the stars who live to fight another day are Hales, Dilshan, Guptill, Mahela, Ross Taylor, David Hussey, Kieswetter, Mathews, Mendis, Philander and Lee.

The IPL will send a list of unsold players to the franchises who will have to pick the players they want included in the second day's auction so that there won't be the litany of unsolds.

End of the first day of auction.

Players sold on the first day:

Set 1

RCB: Yuvraj Singh, All-Rounder, Rs 14,00,00,000
DD: Kevin Pietersen, Batsman, Rs 9,00,00,000
KXIP: Mitchell Johnson, All-Rounder, Rs 6,50,00,000
KKR: Jacques Kallis, All-Rounder, Rs 5,50,00,000
SRH: David Warner, Batsman, Rs 5,50,00,000
DD: Murali Vijay, Batsman, Rs 5,00,00,000
KXIP: Virender Sehwag, Batsman, Rs 3,20,00,000

Unsold: Mahela Jayawardena, Batsman, Rs 2,00,00,000

Set 2

DD: Dinesh Karthik, Wicket Keeper, Rs 12,50,00,000
MI: Michael Hussey, Batsman, Rs 5,00,00,000
CSK: Faf Du Plessis, Batsman, Rs 4,75,00,000
SRH: Amit Mishra, Bowler, Rs 4,75,00,000
SRH: Darren Sammy, All-Rounder, Rs 3,50,00,000
KXIP: George Bailey, Batsman, Rs 3,25,00,000
CSK: Brendon McCullum, Wicket Keeper, Rs 3,25,00,00
MI: Zaheer Khan, Bowler, Rs 2,60,00,00

Set 3

KKR: Robin Uthappa, Batsman, Rs 5,00,00,000
CSK: Dwayne Smith, Batsman, Rs 4,50,00,000
SRH: Aaron Finch, Batsman, Rs 4,00,00,000
DD: Manoj Tiwary, Batsman, Rs 2,80,00,000
RR: Brad Hodge, Batsman, Rs 2,40,00,000
KXIP: Shaun Marsh, Batsman, Rs 2,20,00,000
DD: Jean-Paul Duminy, Batsman, Rs 2,20,00,000
KXIP: Cheteshwar Pujara, Batsman, Rs 1,90,00,000

Unsold: Ross Taylor.

Set 4

DD: Quinton De Kock, Wicket Keeper, Rs 3,50,00,000
KXIP: Wriddhiman Saha, Wicket Keeper, Rs 2,20,00,000
RCB: Parthiv Patel, Wicket Keeper, Rs 1,40,00,000

Unsold: Naman Ojha, Matthew Wade, Craig Kieswetter, Kusal Perera.

Set 5

RR: Steven Smith, All-Rounder, Rs 4,00,00,000
KKR: Yusuf Pathan, All-Rounder, Rs 3,25,00,000
KKR: Shakib Al Hasan, All-Rounder, Rs 2,80,00,000
RCB: Albie Morkel, All-Rounder, Rs 2,40,00,000
SRH: Irfan Pathan, All-Rounder, Rs 2,40,00,000
KXIP: Thisara Perera, All-Rounder, Rs 1,60,00,000

Unsold: Azhar Mahmood, David Hussey, Angelo Mathews, Tillakaratne Dilshan.

Set 6

RCB: Mitchell Starc, Bowler, Rs 5,00,00,000
KXIP: Mohd Shami, Bowler, Rs 4,25,00,000
SRH: Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Bowler, Rs 4,25,00,000
KKR: Vinay Kumar, Bowler, Rs 2,80,00,000
KKR: Morne Morkel, Bowler, Rs 2,80,00,000
DD: Umesh Yadav, Bowler, Rs 2,60,00,000
SRH: Ishant Sharma, Bowler, Rs 2,60,00,000
RCB: Ashok Dinda, Bowler, Rs 1,50,00,000
RCB: Ravi Rampaul, Bowler, Rs 90,00,000

Unsold: Praveen Kumar.

Set 7

KKR: Piyush Chawla, Bowler, Rs 4,25,00,000
MI: Pragyan Ojha, Bowler, Rs 3,25,00,000
DD: Rahul Sharma, Bowler, Rs 1,90,00,000
DD: Muthaih Muralitharan, Bowler, Rs 1,00,00,000

Unsold: Ajantha Mendis, Murli Kartik, Nathan McCullum, Robin Peterson.

Set 8

DD: Saurabh Tiwary, Batsman, Rs 70,00,000
RCB: Nic Maddinson, Batsman, Rs 50,00,000

Unsold: White, Bravo, Hales, Samuels, Badrinath, Bell, Tamim Iqbal, Guptill, Simmons.

Set 9

SRH: B Taylor, Wicket-keeper, Rs 30,00,000

Unsold: Paine, Silva, Andre Fletcher, Dane Vilas, Ramdin, P Jayawardene, Ronchi.

Set 10

KXIP: Glenn Maxwell, All-rounder, Rs 6,00,00,000
MI: Corey Anderson, All-Rounder, Rs 4,50,00,000
DD: Laxmi Ratan Shukla,    All-Rounder, Rs 1,50,00,000
RR: Abhishek Nayar, All-Rounder, Rs 1,00,00,000
SH: Moises Henriques, All-Rounder, Rs 1,00,00,000

Unsold: Andre Russell, Daniel Christian, Ravi Bopara, Luke Wright.

Set 11

DD: Nathan Coulter-Nile, Bowler, Rs 4,25,00,000
DD: Jaydev Unadkat, Bowler, Rs 2,80,00,000
CSK: Mohit Sharma, Bowler, Rs 2,00,00,000
CSK: Ashish Nehra, Bowler, Rs 2,00,00,000
RCB: Varun Aaron, Bowler, Rs 2,00,00,000
KXIP: Laxmipathy Balaji, Bowler, Rs 1,80,00,000
KXIP: Parvinder Awana, Bowler, Rs 65,00,000

Unsold: RP Singh, Brett Lee, Munaf Patel.

Set 12

CSK: Samuel Badree, Spinner, Rs 30,00,000

Unsold: Sulieman Benn, Rangana Herath, Imran Tahir, Nathan Lyon, Suraj Randiv, Ramesh Pawar, Brad Hogg, Akila Dananjaya.

Set 13

SRH: Venugopal Rao, Batsman, Rs 55,00,000

Unsold: Neil McKenzie, Chris Lynn, Herschelle Gibbs, Ben Rohrer, Farhann Behardien, Henry Davids, Upul Tharanga, Hamish Rutherford, Abhinav Mukund.

Set 14

DD: James Neesham, Allrounder, Rs 1,00,00,000

Unsold: Johan Botha, James Franklin, Senanayake, Andre McDonald, John Hastings, van der Merwe, Jesse Ryder.

Set 15

RR: Tim Southee, Bowler, Rs 1,20,00,000
CSK: Ben Hilfenhaus, Bowler, Rs 1,00,00,000
RR: Ben Cuttings, Bowler, Rs 80,00,000
SH: Jason Holder, Bowler, Rs 75,00,000
MI: Josh Hazelwood, Bowler, Rs 50,00,000

Unsold: Fidel Edwards, Manpreet Gony.

Set 16

Unsold: Fawad Ahmed, Nikita Miller, Nicky Boje, James Muirhead, M.D Shohag Gazi.

Set 17

Unsold: Richard Levi, Colin Munro, Thirimane, Philip Hughes, Vaughan van Jaarsveld, Dean Elgar, Travis Burt, Kieran Powell, Luke Pomersbach.

Set 18

Unsold: Samit Patel, Vernon Philander, Jacob Oram, Christopher Barnwell, Maharoof, Dimitri Mascarenhas, David Wiese, Jeevan Mendis.

Set 19

Unsold: Doug Bollinger, Patrick Cummins, Jackson Bird, Pankaj Singh, Ryan McLaren, Jackson Bird, Dirk Nannes, Mithun, Adam Milne, Shaun Tait, Wayne Parnell.

Set 20

Unsold: Mohammad Kaif, Kapugedera, Adrian Barath, Robert Quiney, Hemang Badani, Jehan Mubarak, Justin Ontong, Wasim Jaffer, Dilshan Munaweera, Callum Ferguson.

Set 21

Unsold: Grant Elliott, Rayad Emrit, Elton Chigumbura, Garey Mathurin, Rikki Clarke, Danza Hyat not sold.

Set 22

Unsold: Lonwabo Tsotsobe, VRV Singh, Krismar Santokie, Sudeep Tyagi, Kemar Roach, Marchant De Lange, Mitchell McClenaghan, Ben Laughlin

Set 23

CSK: Matt Henry, Bowler, Rs 30,00,000

Unsold: Tino Best, Simon Jones, Jade Dernbach, Sheldon Cottrel, Jerome Taylor, Kyle Mills, Juan Theron.

Set 24

Unsold: Shaminda Eranga, Hamish Bennett, Ian Butler, Rory Kleinveldt, Nuwan Pradeep, Suranga Lakmal, Aavishkar Salvi, Isuru Udana.

Most expensive players bought on the first day:

RCB: Yuvraj Singh, All-Rounder, Rs 14,00,00,000
DD: Dinesh Karthik, Wicket Keeper, Rs 12,50,00,000
DD: Kevin Pietersen, Batsman, Rs 9,00,00,000
KXIP: Mitchell Johnson, All-Rounder, Rs 6,50,00,000
KXIP: Glenn Maxwell, All-Rounder, Rs 6,00,00,000
KKR: Jacques Kallis, All-Rounder, Rs 5,50,00,000
SRH: David Warner, Batsman, Rs 5,50,00,000
KKR: Robin Uthappa, Batsman, Rs 5,00,00,000

Funds still available:

CSK: Rs 2,90,00,000
DD: Rs 8,60,00,000
KXIP: Rs 14,20,00,000
KKR: Rs 9,00,00,000
MI: Rs 5,15,00,000
RR: Rs 12,10,00,000
RCB: Rs 1,80,00,000
SRH: Rs 8,40,00,000

But Shaminda Eranga, Hamish Bennett, Ian Butler, Rory Kleinveldt, Nuwan Pradeep, Suranga Lakmal, Avishkar Salvi and Isuru Udana are all unsold.

The final set of players for the day are also fast bowlers.

Tino Best, Jade Dernbach, Sheldon Cottrell, Jerome Taylor, Kyle Mills, Rusty Theron, Nuwan Kulasekera and Simon Jones have bidders.

Finally New Zealand's Matt Henry is sold to CSK for Rs 30 lakh.

VRV Singh, Krishmar Santokie, Sudeep Tyagi, Marchant De Lange, Kemar Roach, Marchant de Lang, Mitchell McClenaghan and Ben Laughlin also fail to attract any bids.

The fast bowlers are back in action but South Africa's Lonwabo Tsotsobe fails to attract any bids.

Mohammad Mahmadullah, Grant Elliott, Rayan Emrit, Elton Chigumbura, Garey Mathurin, Angelo Perera, Danza Hyatt and Rikki Clarke are all unsold.

Sri Lanka's spinner Dilruwan Perera is unsold.

The next set of players is a group of allrounders.

Josh Hazelwood was the last to receive a bid. Since then last 45 players were all unsold.

None of the batsmen were sold in the latest round of bidding as the auction takes another break.

The slumber continues as Chamara Kapugedera, Adrian Barath, Robert Quiney, Hemang Badani, Jehan Mubarak, Justin Ontong, Wasim Jaffer, Dilshan Munaweera and Callum Ferguson fail to attract any bids.

The next set is another group of batsmen with India's Mohammad Kaif opening it but failing to attract any bids.

There are no bids for Dirk Nannes, Abhimanyu Mithun, Adam Milne, Shaun Tait and even Wayne Parnell.

Even South African Ryan McLaren has no takers.

Next up is a set of fast bowler but Australian Doug Bollinger, Pat Cummins and Jackson Bird are unsold.

The next set of players are batsmen once again with South Africa's Richard Levi, New Zealand's Colin Munro, Sri Lanka's Lahiru Thirimanne, Australia's Phil Hughes, South Africa's Vaughn Van Jaarsveld, Dean Elgar, Vernon Philander, Australia's Travis Birt, West Indian Kieran Powell, Australia's Luke Pomersbach, Kiwi Neil Broom, England's Samit Patel, Jacob Oram, Christopher Barnwell, Farveez Maharoof, Dimitri Mascarenhas, David Weise and Jeevan Mendis all being unsold.

South Africa's Nicky Boje, Australia's James Muirhead and Sohag Gazi from Bangladesh also have no bidders at the auction takes another break before the final session.

There are no takers for Ausralia's Pakistan-born spinner Fawad Ahmed and West Indian Nikita Miller.

Next up is a set of spinners with West Indians Devendra Bishoo and Ashley Nurse going unsold.

Australia's Josh Hazlewood is sold to Mumbai at a base price of Rs 50 lakh.

Rajasthan get Southee for Rs 120 lakh.

CSL and Rajasthan are bidding for New Zealander Tim Southee.

West Indian Jason Holder is sold to Sunrisers for Rs 75 lakh.

Joginder Sharma and Australia's Clint McKay are unsold.

Chennai snap up Ben Hilfenhaus for a base price Rs 100 lakh.

Kane Richardson sold to Rajasthan at base price of Rs 100 lakh.

Manpreet Gony doesn't get a bid.

Cutting goes to Rajasthan for Rs 80 lakh.

Bidding is on for Australia's latest find Ben Cutting who gets bids from RR and MI.

West Indian pacer Fidel Edwards also goes unsold.

Australia's Andrew McDonald, John Hastings, Roelof van der Merwe and Jesse Ryder have no bidders.

Another Sri Lankan Sachithra Senanayake is unsold

Bidding is on for New Zealand's Jimmy Neesham who is sold to Delhi for Rs 100 lakh.

New Zealand's James Franklin is unsold.

The next set is third one comprising allrounder with South Africa's Johan Botha being first out but goes unsold.

Abhinav Mukund is the last name out of this lot but goes unsold.

Finally there is a bid for India's Venugopal Rao who is sold to Sunrisers for Rs 55 lakh.

Hamish Rutherford of New Zealand also doesn't have any bidders.

Australian batsman Adam Voges and Sri Lanka's Upul Tharanga also have no bidders.

South Africans Farhaan Behardien and Henry Davids go unsold.

Australia's Chrys Lynn and Ben Rohrer, and South Africa's Herschelle Gibbs all go unsold.

The next set of players are batsmen with Neil McKenzie start but is unsold.

Another Sri Lankan Akila Dananjaya is also unsold and is the last out of the bag.

Australia's 43-year-old Brad Hogg who is bound for the World Twenty20 in Bangladesh also goes unsold.

India's Ramesh Powar also has no takers.

Another Sri Lankan Suraj Randiv also goes unsold.

Ausralia's Nathan Lyon also has not takers.

South Africa's Pakistan-born spinner Imran Tahir goes unsold.

West Indian Samuel Badree is sold at a base price of Rs 30 lakh to Rajasthan.

Sri Lanka's ace spinner Rangana Herath also doesn't have any bidders.

First spinner of the list is Sulieman Benn who goes unsold.

A set of spinners is up next after the short break.

"We have our marquee players, we retained them. When you have retained five players and the budgets you are working with, you have to be realistic, some of the prices they went for, it wasn't realistic for us," says Rahul Dravid of Rajasthan Royals.

So far 99 players have gone under the hammer while 39 have been unsold.

Munaf Patel is the bowler out of the bag but goes unsold.

Chennai retain Mohit for Rs 200 lakh.

Mohit Sharma gets bids from CSK and DD.

The bidding war is on for Jaydev Unadkat who is sold to Delhi for Rs 280 lakh.

Bids are on for India's Parvinder Awana who is retained by KXIP.

Aaron is sold to Bangalore for Rs 200 lakh.

The new Indian kid on the block Varun Aaron is up next with Sunrisers and RCB making the initial bid.

Ashish Nehra is up next is sold at base price of Rs 200 lakh to Chennai.

Balaji is sold to Punjab for Rs 180 lakh.

KXIP and RCB are bidding for Lakshmipathy Balaji.

Australia's Nathan Coulter-Nile is sold to Delhi for Rs 425 lakh.

Nathan Coulter-Nile is up next for auction and Rajasthan and Delhi are bidding for him.

Brett Lee also goes unsold.

Next up is the second set of fast bowlers with RP Singh not getting any bid.

Australia's Moises Henriques goes to Sunrisers for a base price of Rs 100 lakh.

Australia Daniel Christian, England's Ravi Bopara and Luke Wright are unsold.

Abhishek Nayyar goes to Rajasthan for Rs 100 lakh.

Mumbai may have lost Maxwell but bag Anderson for Rs 450 lakh which is $750,000.

Sunrisers join the race for Anderson making a bid of Rs 425 lakh but Mumbai raise it to 450.

Anderson's value is raised to Rs 400 lakh by Mumbai with Delhi bowing out.

Mumbai and Rajasthan are making the early bids for Anderson.

Rajasthan make first bid for Anderson who holds the record for the fastest ODI century.

New Zealand master blaster Corey Anderson is up next beginning with a base of Rs 100 lakh.

Shukla is sold to Delhi for Rs 150 lakh.

India's Laxmi Ratan Shukla is up next with KKR and Delhi making bids.

Punjab raise it to Rs 600,000 and Maxwell is sold to the KXIP with Mumbai bowing out of the race to retain the Australian all-rounder.

KXIP weigh in with a bid of Rs 500 lakh and Mumbai keep fighting on raising it to Rs 550 lakh.

Delhi are not relenting raising it to Rs 450 lakh.

Mumbai ask for time after Delhi raise to Rs 350 lakh and make a bid for Rs 400 lakh.

Maxwell's base price is Rs 100 lakh and Mumbai make the initial bid of Rs 200 lakh.

There are no takers for Andre Russell but Glenn Maxwell is up next.

Lots of leaving and not much bidding in the post lunch session as teams wait for specific players.

Up next is the second set of all rounders.

West Indian Johnson Charles and Luke Ronchi are also unsold.

Zimbabwe's Brendan Taylor is sold to Sunrisers for a base price of Rs 30 lakh.

The list of unsold players gets bigger with South Africa's Dane Vilas, West Indian Denesh Ramdin and Sri Lanka's Prasanna Jayawardene.

The trend continues with Sri Lanka's Kaushal Silva and and West Indian Andre Fletcher not getting any bids.

Australia's Tim Pain is unsold as the bidding has gone into sleep mode after lunch.

The next set of players is the second set of keepers.

New Zealand's Lendl Simmons and Martin Guptill are unsold in this set of bidding.

Bangladesh's dashing opener Tamim Iqbal is also unsold.

India's Badrinath and England's Ian Bell are unsold.

West Indian Marlon Samuels is also unsold.

Delhi buy Saurabh Tiwary at Rs 70 lakh.

England's Alex Hales is unsold.

West Indian Darren Bravo is unsold again.

Another Australia Nic Maddinson is sold to RCB for a base price Rs 50 lakh.

There are not takers for him having a base of price of Rs 150 lakh.

Australian Cameron White is the first out of the bag.

The second session of the auction is to resume with the second list of specialist batsmen up for sale.

Vijay Mallya happy to get Yuvraj Singh, but admits paid Rs 4cr extra, according to ndtv.com.

In the 2011 auction he had to pay Rs 1 cr extra to get Saurabh Tiwary.

Sri Lankan players seem to be the biggest losers in this auction with five players going unsold despite Thisara Perera being bought by Kings XI Punjab for Rs 160 lakhs.

There were no takers for Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews, veteran batsman Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan.

The total amount bid so far Rs 173.95 cr ($29.05m) with Delhi spending Rs 41.15cr (6.87m) while Rajasthan Royals have spent the least Rs 6.40cr (1.07m)

Fifteen players have been unsold so far including Ross Taylor, Praveen Kumar and Ajantha Mendis.

The toppers are Yuvraj Singh (RCB) for Rs2.34 million, Dinesh Karthik (DD) Rs2.09m, Kevin Pietersen (DD) Rs1.50m, Mitchell Johnson (KXP) Rs1.09m.

The IPL7 auction takes a break for lunch with Bangalore welcoming back Sri Lanka legend Muralitharan while his compatriot Mendis is unsold.

RCB get Muralitharan for the base price of Rs100 lakhs with no one else making a bid.

Sri Lanka spin legend Muttiah Muralitharan goes under the hammer.

South African spinner Robin Peterson is also unsold.

Sharma is sold to Delhi Daredevils for Rs190 lakhs.

Bidding is in progress for Pune leg spinner Rahul Sharma.

New Zealand's Nathan McCullum also remains unsold.

Bids are open for Murali Karthik who is also unsold.

There are no taker for Sri Lanka's mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis.

Ojha remains with the Mumbai Indians being sold for Rs325 lakhs.

Mumbai and Delhi begin the bids for Ojha taking it to Rs300.

Next out of the bag is Pragyan Ojha with a base price of Rs 200 lakh.

Chawla is sold to KKR for Rs425 lakhs.

Delhi and CSK bid for Chawla.

First spin bowler out of the bag is Piyush Chawla with a base price Rs50 lakh.

Set no.7 bidding begins for spinners.

Latest update:
Fast bowlers done.

Mornie Morkel to KKR; RV Kumar sold to KKR; Praveen Kumar unsold; Umesh Yadav to KKR; Bangalore get Ravi Rampaul; Shami to Delhi; Sunrisers get B Kumar and Ishant; Ashok Dinda, Mitchell Starc to Bangalore

KKR finally built up a head of steam and along with the Sunrisers beefed up their bowling attack.

Indian bowlers not inspiring a lot of faith.... and the billions of Indian fans probably agree after their display against New Zealand.

West Indian Ravi Rampaul sold for Rs90 lakh. Really.

Ravi Rampaul is cheaper than a ............... fill in the blanks and tweet us @Emirates247

Interesting that Sunrisers are using this lot to build their bowling, picking up both Bhuvi Kumar and Ishant, though Kumar cost them more.

Fast bowlers on now...

All rounders: Shakib Al Hassan to KKR; Albie Morkel sold to Bangalore; Kings XI Punjab buy Thisara Perera; KKR keep hold of Yusuf Pathan; Steve Smith to Rajasthan; Shocker: Azhar Mahmood, Dilshan, Angelo Matthews, David Hussey unsold!

There must be an issue with the Lankan players' schedules as Dilshan also goes unsold.

Ross Taylor unsold is one thing, Angelo Matthews and David Hussey are quite another, unless of course, there is a problem with their schedules.

What did Preity Zinta eat for brekfast? Apart from looking delightful in white her team Punjab is snapping up players like this is the last IPL ever... which if you consider all the behind-the-scenes murkiness going on, is not such a far-fetched thought.

Punjab literally creating a completely new team... now buying Thisara Perera.

Wicketkeepers' auction: Perera unsold; Craig Kieswetter unsold; Matthew Wade unsold; Parthiv Patel to RCB; Punjab buy Saha, Quinton de Kock to Delhi Naman Ojha unsold

Punjab still staying agressive, picking up Saha from among the keepers.

All unsold players will go on auction again tomorrow.

Tweet of the hour:

And back to my home in India it is. Kolkata in a few months time for IPL. Glad to be going back to KKR.

Block 2 of players done.

Dwayne Smith sold to Chennai SuperKings; Manoj Tiwari to Delhi; Shaun Marsh to Punjab; Rajasthan keep Hodge; Uthappa to KKR; JP Duminy to Delhi; Pujara to Punjab; Finch to Sunrisers; Ross Taylor unsold.

All teams started with Rs60 crore. Will have to spend wisely now.

16 players minimum squad, 27 players maximum.

Second set of players done and Punjab ruled again... buying whoever they can, really, or maybe they do have a plan.

Kolkata Knight Riders finally come to the party and get Pune's Robin Uthappa for their first player of the auction.

Punjab continue their agressive buying, netting Cheteshwar Pujara to add to their impressive kitty.

Marquee block 1 done.

Zaheer Khan plays for Mumbai Indians; Amit Mishra stays with Sunrisers; Mike Hussey to Mumbai; Karthik to Delhi; Faf Du Plessis to Chennai; Sammy to Sunrisers; Bailey to Punjab; Johnson to Punjab; Warner to Sunrisers; Sehwag for Punjab; Kallis goes to KKR; Yuvraj sold for Rs1,400 lakh to RCB; Pietersen sold to Delhi Daredevils; Murali Vijay to Punjab

Indian players on the marquee list definitely commanding the bucks.

Dinesh Karhik goes for Rs1,250 lakh to Delhi... Mumbai let another one go.

Mumbai seems to be driving player prices up and then backing out. Faf Du Plessis goes to Chennai in the end.

Punjab going crazy at the auction here.. picking up Sehwag, Johnson and now Bailey.... and of course Murali Vijay.

Vijay Mallya, who by now is the master of ducking tough questions, explains his paying oif Rs1,400 lakh for Yuvi by talking about Bangalore's bowling!

And it’s time for a break with the marquee players proving excitement enough to set the tone for the rest of the auction.

Why did Mumbai let Mitchell Johnson go?

Is Yuvraj really worth more than Kevin Pietersen?

Mahela Jayawardena going unsold, probably because of his availability.

Tweet us what you think of the above...  @Emirates247

Tweet of the hour: CSK IS THE FC BARCELONA OF IPL, they'll regain their fortress back :-) Román ‏@number10role now

Session One

Mitchell Johnson sold to KXIP for Rs650 lakh. Will Mumbai buy him back at that amount using their 'Right to Match' card? They decide not to!

Warner started off slowly but picked up as Mumbai and Hyderabad went head to head. With Warner in Mumbai, we could see two players prone to punch-ups in the same team - Harbhajan and Warner.

What a fight that would be!

If money was ever an indicator of a player's career being over Virender Sehwag should wake up and hear the auctioneer.

After Yuvi's amazing value at Rs1,400 lakh, Sehwag goes for a paltry Rs320 lakh.

Kallis goes to KKR at Rs550 lakhs.

Bangalore had to pay much more for Yuvraj... Rs1,400 lakh and Vijay Mallya does not look pleased.

Confusion over Yuvraj. Bidder sells Yuvi to RCB for Rs1,000 lakh, but KKR say their hand was raised.

Turns out he could not see the KKR paddle. Re-opens bidding at Rs1,000 lakh.

Pietersen sold to Delhi Darevdeils for Rs900 lakh.

Where the IPL is there goes the Bollywood bandwagon. First actor to crash the party? Ranbir Kapoor. Pepsi tweets he is their first intern at the auction.

What's your view on the auction? Have your say as we report it 'live' and we will carry your tweets here.

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More facts for the people who like facts... which the IPL as a sporting franchise always seems to have two versions of.. but, players are divided into 53 sets. Set numero uno is Marquee 1 or M1 - consists of the biggest stars.

2 big questions? Will Mumbai Indians get Kevin Pietersen, is it time for MS Dhoni to leave Chennai Super Kings?

Auction starts at 9:30 am and man on the mic will be Richard Madley, who has been the man on the mic since IPL 1 in 2008.

In about 30 minutes from now the next edition of the Indian Premier League will kick off… with the annual jamboree of the players’ auction. Among the 514 players on offer, this year some of the biggest global and Indian stars will be under the hammer.

And by under the hammer we mean not just for the auction.

Indian captain MS Dhoni’s name has cropped up far too many in an ongoing IPL corruption probe. Kevin Pietersen’s ‘dumping’ by the ECB has divided the nation of England.

But which team will unite to get him for IPL 7?