Action hero is auction star

Quintessentially English,auctioneer Richard Madley has made a living out of selling cheap antiques in suburban Bristol...

Quintessentially English,auctioneer Richard Madley has made a living out of selling cheap antiques in suburban Bristol his home town for about 20 to 30 pounds per item. Far away inside a five-star hotel in Mumbai,a minimum of 3.7 million passed under Madleys hammer during Indian Premier Leagues auction for its third season.

Only 11 players out of a total of 67 had sold stamped on their price tags while no players from Pakistan were chosen by any of the franchises. The real battle between the owners though was for West Indian Kieron Pollard and Kiwi fast bowler Shane Bond,both of whom hit the maximum bid limit of 750,000.

Eventually settled on a silent tie-break,Pollard base price 200,000 was snapped up by the Mumbai Indians represented by Nita Ambani and according to sources,the Trinidadian has shattered the existing record bid with a price ranging from 2.3 to 2.75 million,while Bond will be opening the bowling for the Kolkata Knight Riders for an estimated 1.3 million.

While the players priced at 250,000 in Pool A Englands Graeme Swann,Australia wicketkeeper Brad Haddin and Shahid Afridi remained unsold,Pool B was a complete sell-out. The first name to be picked out of the velvet bag was the only Indian in the field,Mohammad Kaif. Although Kaif didnt receive any bids in the first round for his base price of 100,000,he was chosen by the Kings XI Punjab think-tank of Ness Wadia and Preity Zinta in the second round for 250,000.

Putting their differences apart,the Punjab co-owners sat at arms length from each other,while playing catalyst in the sale of West Indies fast bowler Kemar Roach. Fuelling fire to a battle between Chennai Super Kings and Deccan Chargers,Wadia and Zinta entered the bidding process at 600,000 before pulling out at 710,000. Roach was finally sold for 720,000 to Gayatri Reddy of the Deccan Chargers a 720 percent rise to his base price.

Englands Eoin Morgan was bought by Banaglore Royal Challengers for 220,000,the most subdued bidding table in the room. The usually flamboyant Vijay Mallya preferred to keep his head down,talking only in whispers to RCB captain Anil Kumble,while South Africas Wayne Parnell bought at 610,000 added strength to the waning powers of the Delhi Daredevils bowling line-up.

Madley could have very well have stopped auctioneering at this point. Out of the remaining 59 players distributed over the remaining three pools,only Damien Martyn and Thissara Perrera were snapped up immediately at their base prices,while Justin Kemp 100,000Chennai Super Kings,Yusuf Abdullah 50,000Kings XI and Adam Voges 50,000Rajasthan were chosen as afterthoughts. Three years since he retired from international cricket,Martyn was chosen by a chirpy Shilpa Shetty at 100,000 to bring depth to Rajasthan Royals side while Perrera impressed BCCI secretary N Srinivasan at Chennai Super Kings table for a price of 50,000.

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Harmeet Singh is considered to lucky mascot for the Deccan Chargers as they havent lost a single match he has played in so they decided to add another one.

Currently playing the under-19 World Cup in New Zealand,left-arm spinner Harmeet is one of the three in the squad eligible to play the IPL,at a fixed piece of eight lakhs. Chosen on the basis of a draft system,the other two picked were India under-19 captain Ashok Menaria,by Bangalore,and all-rounder Harshal Patel who finds his name in the Mumbai contingent.