KP, Freddie make it 'English' Premier League

It has been 61 years since the British left the Indian shores but there seems to be some fascination for the English still in the country. The second auction of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has brought to the fore Indians’ English obsession, rather than Australian or Caribbean.

It could be pure cricketing logic but the IPL was turned into a sort of English Premier League. At the Taj Aguada here on Friday, the English players, more precisely, Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff, broke ceiling. The two former England captains breached the 1.5 million peak set by MS Dhoni at last year’s auction. The Indian skipper now ceases to be the highest paid player of the IPL.

Both Flintoff and Pietesen were taken for an identically astronomical $ 1,550,000, 50,000 more than Dhoni. It means Dhoni will be leading a player who has attracted more than him. So will Rahul Dravid, who will lead a higher-priced Kevin Pietersen (the rule that icon player getting 15 per cent more than highest paid player of his side was not applied this season).

There were three other English players — Ravi Bopara ($ 450,000) by Kings XI Punjab and Paul Collingwood ($ 275,000) and Owais Shah ($ 275,000) by Delhi Dare Devils. Together the English players have walked away with about $ 4.2 million, more than half the money transacted at the auction. The auction saw a transaction of $ 7.6 million.

IPL chairman Lalit Modi, however, rubbished the talk that the English players have upstaged the Indians at the IPL. “It is unfair to say that English have got a better price than the Indian. After the third year, I’m sure the Indians will be back on top,” Lalit Modi said.

Apart from the English, the other hero of the auction was an underdog from Bangladesh. Mashrafe Bin Mortaza got 12 times his base price of $ 50,000 from Kolkata Knight Riders. Other surprises from the auction were Jean Paul Duminy who commanded a staggering bid of $ 950,000, three times more than his base price of $ 300,000. His compatriot Tyron Henderson, considered to be a T20 veteran, got unexpectedly big bucks. He went for $ 650,000 against his reserve money of $ 100,000.

“Pietersen is a good addition for our side. We have good bowlers and we were looking for a quality batsman,” Vijay Mallya said. Mallya would not disclose if he would hand over the reins of the team to Pietersen. “Well, you will have to wait for that,” the Bangalore team owner said, keeping everyone guessing.

Chennai went full blast for Flintoff. “T20 is a game of all rounders and we are happy to get an all-rounder of Flintoff’s quality,” the team owner N Srinivasan said.

In stark contrast to last year, the Australians were not the preferred choice for the team owners this time around. It could be a calculated decision by the franchisees but the fact remained that only two Australians of 17 put up for auction were preferred.
Apart from five Englishmen and two Australians, there were two South Africans, two Bangladeshis, two New Zealanders, three West Indians and one Sri Lankan bought from a pool of 50 players. A grand total of US $ 7.65 million was bid for the 17 new players.