Indian Premier League: Mahela Jayawardene, Ross Taylor go unsold on Day 1 of auction
Star players Mahela Jayawardene, Ross Taylor, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Brett Lee failed to attract any bidders on the first day of the Indian Premier League auction.
- Indo-Asian News Service
- Updated: February 12, 2014 07:07 PM IST
There were no takers for 146 top players, including former international captains Ross Taylor and Mahela Jayawardene, in the players' auction for the seventh edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) here on Wednesday. The Sri Lankan master batsman had a base price of Rs 2 Crore. Taylor met a similar fate in spite of being in amazing form in the recent series against India at home. It seems age and current form have been yardsticks. (Day 1 highlights | The auction rules | Full list of players - sold and unsold)
Former Australian pacer Brett Lee and explosive Sri Lankan opener Tillakaratne Dilshan were the other big names that the IPL franchises chose to ignore. (Full IPL coverage)
Among prominent Indians who went unsold were pacers RP Singh and Praveen Kumar, former India spinner Murali Karthik, middle-order batsman Subramaniam Badrinath and top Ranji performer Pankaj Singh.
Yuvraj Singh fetched the highest price in the auction with Rs 14 crore. Yuvraj also outshone England discard Kevin Pietersen, who will stay with Delhi Daredevils. The Delhi franchise, the only team to start from scratch, will pay a modest Rs 9 crore to the maverick Pietersen, who also became the first 'joker' in the auctions. (Must read: Yuvi bags a 'golden' double)