Transcendence

The bidders gave top priority to Indians, Australians and South Africans. 45 Indians were signed along with 36 Australians, 18 South Africans, 9 Lankans, 7 Englishmen, 7 NZers, 3 West Indians, 1 Bangladeshi and 1 Dutch ! It seems the influence of six Aussie coaches had their say in the IPL IV Auction. Since Indians were performing well in T20s, ODIs and Tests and India is numero uno in Test and second in ODIs, it was understandable that the majority were Indian players. Pakistanis were not considered as the Govt of Pakistan had denied visas to Paki players. England' s international fixtures clashes with IPL VI, which starts from Apr 8 and stretches upto May 28. Now the attention moves to the uncapped players segment. BCCI has given the nod for signing the uncapped players to the fanchisees. The teams will use the $ 9 million cap to buy these players. The uncapped players can play a pivotal role in the tournament. Kochi has bright stars like Prashant Parameswaran, Vincent and Raphy

No doubt Australian cricket is still of high standard. The Sheffield Shield pacers bowl at 145 kph normally. As many as 38 Aussies were signed in IPL Auction IV. Some say this is due to the influence of the six Australian coaches - Darren Lehman, Dave Whatmore, Michael Bevan, Geoff Lawson, Geoff Marsh, Shane Warne - but then it was talent that was signed. 20 South Africans were also signed and it is said the the Southern Hemisphere got its due at last ! Each team is allowed 40 cr to buy players and Kochi has already bought for 35 cr INR. So the ten teams have almost spent 350 cr totally for signing 112 ace players. The Pathan brothers pocketed more than 20 cr, but then this is a great compensation for their service to cricket. Both are class allrounders. Rohit Sharma proved that he is worthy of crores as he blasted 53 against SA. The unknown Aussie, Daniel Christian, was swallowed by DC for $ 900,000. Since the format is T20, all long handles were welcomed and there was reserve about s

The Kochi IPL team appears to be well balanced. Good batsmen in McCullum, Jayawerdene, Laxan, Owais Shah and good bowlers in Sreeshant, RP Singh, Powar, Muralitharan and V Kumar. Parthiv Patel and McCullum are wicket keeper batsmen and both can be utilised as batsmen. Brad Hodge is an established all rounder. So is Ravindra Jadeja. The spin bowling department is dominated by two offies - Muralitharan and Pawar. Pawar is no rabbit with the bat. VVS Laxman will play the anchor role. T20 is not all about lusty hitting and some sheet anchor players are needed. Jayawerdene can also don the garb of the sheet anchor role batsman. The pace bowling is in the hands of Sreeshant, R P Singh and V Kumar, who all can swing the ball well. Sreeshant proved that in South Africa. His outswingers are really lethal. David Lloyd called him "eccentric, but outstanding". R P Singh is also a good mover of the ball. Vinay Kumar is also a good swing bowler. V Prasad had coached all Indian bowlers wel

Needing 169 to win, S A fell short by 21 runs in one and only T20 match. R Sharma blasted 53, Raina 41 and V Kohli 28 in India's 168/6. SA could only score 147/9. In reply Van Vyk blasted 67 off 39 balls but then when he fell c Nehru b Kumar, the match was more or less over. The Indian bowlers bowled well. Nehru took 2, Pathan 2 and the others 1.

Kochi picked up Owais Shah for $200,000 Steven O Keefe for $20,000 Michael Klinger for $ 75000 Thissara Pereira for $ 80,000 Romesh Pawar for $ 180,000 Brad Hodge for $ 225,000 Vinay Kumar for $ 475,000 Parthiv Patel ( $290,000) With Brett Lee, Y Pathan, Gambhir, Kallis, Morgan, Haddin et Kolkotta Knight Riders looks formidable. Pune snapped up Uthappa ( $ 2.1 m ), Yuvraj ( $ 1.8 m ), Angelo Mathews ( $ 950,000), Graeme Smith ( $ 500,000), Callum Ferguson ( $ 300,000 ), Tim Paine ( $ 270,000), Jerome Taylor ( $100,000) & Nathan McCullum ( $100,000),

Ex Minister Shashi Taroor said that Mahela is well experienced to lead the Kochi side and that Sreeshant represents the face of resurgent Kerala. 15 millionaires were created yesterday by the ten franchisees of IPL. G Gambhir led with a contract of $ 2.4 m. The franchisees spent about $ 52.8 m for 72 players sold yesterday. The top seven of the 15 millionaires created were Indians. Y Pathan and Uthappa got contracts of over $ 2 m. As the cicket's richest and the biggest domestic even unfolded yesterday at Bangalore, records were broken and banks also on the first day of the auction weekend. Mahela became the highest earning overseas player, bought by Kochi for a whopping $ 1.5 m. There were no takers for the old Ganguly, Lara or Gayle. After all Ganguly and Lara had retired from cricket. The demand was for the younger, high impact men and genuine multitasking all rounders. Irfan Patha's buy was a surprise - he was bought for $1.9 m, despite being injured for most of the dom

The new Kochi team gobbled up VVS Laxman, McCullum, RP Sing, Mahela and Sreeshant. There were no takers for Lara or Ganguly, may be they are too old ! 353 players went under the hammer and total budget for the ten franchises is a whopping $ 90 million. The number of bidders was ten, as Kochi and Pune emerged as the new franchisees. The battle royal was fought by Nita Ambani (MI), Vijay Mallya ( RC ), Subrato Roy ( Pune ) and GMR ( Delhi ). Gambhir went for a whopping $ 2. 1 m. Bought by KKR. Dilshan went for $ 650,000 . RC Zaheer was bought for $ 900,000 by RC. Y Pathan - 2.1 m - KKR. R Taylor of NZ - RR - $ 1 m K Pietersen of England - RR - $ 650,000 M Jayawerdene - 1.5 m - Kochi Yuvraj - Pune - 1.8 m Bram Villiers - RC - $1.1 m When Sourav Ganguly was brought onto the auction table, jaws dropped and so far no takers for a reserve price of $ 400,000. Cameroon White - DC - $ 1.1 m R Sharma - $ 2 m - MI Harbhajan and Symonds - $ 850,000 Sangakara - DC - $ 700, 000 Gilchrist - Punjab - $