Ganguly remains unsold, unknown Christian clinches huge deal

Bangalore, Jan 9 (PTI) Reputations counted for little as
former India captain Sourav Ganguly and several other big
names found no takers for the fourth edition of the IPL even
as unheralded Australian Daniel Christian was bought for an
astounding USD 900,000 (RS 4.14 crore apprx) on the second day
of the auction here on Sunday.
Veteran Sri Lankan batsman Sanath Jayasuriya also failed
to find a buyer today joining a high-profile list of unsold
players which included among others West Indies batting great
Brian Lara, Chris Gayle, Mark Boucher and Graeme Swann.
Ganguly's name, in fact, did not even come up in the
second round of bidding, the players for which were handpicked
by the franchises, prompting angry fans to stage protests
against his former team Kolkata Knight Riders in the Bengal
capital.
A total of 241 of the 353 players in fray went unsold in
the first round of auctions, which spanned over two days. 28
players came up for a re-auctioning on the request of the
franchises but again some of them strangely went unsold.
New Zealand's hard-hitting batsman Jesse Ryder (Pune, USD
150,000), spinner Murali Karthik (Pune, USD 400,000) and
Mohammad Kaif (Bangalore, USD 130,000) were among the lucky 12
who managed to sneak through into the cash-rich event.
At the end of the two-day auction all the franchises
still had some money left from the USD nine million cap on a
rather dull second day considering that Gautam Gambhir had
gone for a record Rs 11.04 crore to KKR on the first day.
In a relatively low-key day, it was Christian who hogged
the limelight as he was bought by Deccan 18 times more than
his base price of USD 50,000.
No one could have even imagined that the 27-year-old from
New South Wales will go for such a high price. He has played
just three Twenty20 internationals for Australia and is
primarily a fast bowler who can hit a long way in the lower
order.
"We believe Dan Christian is a good buy. He is good fast
bowler and a decent batsman. He is also a brilliant fielder,"
Deccan Chargers owner Gayathri Reddy said.
Delhi Daredevils were the biggest gainers as they snapped
up fringe fast bowlers. Umesh Yadav, who had a base price of
USD 50,000, went for a whopping USD 750,000 while pacers Ashok
Dinda (USD 375,000) and Ajit Agarkar (USD 210,000) were bought
by Delhi Daredevils.
Munaf Patel was bought by Mumbai Indians for USD 700,000
(apprx Rs 3.1 crore).
Ranganath Vinay Kumar was bought by Kochi for USD 475,000
while Manpreet Gony was bought by Deccan for USD 290,000.
However, paceman VRV Singh was a prominent Indian player who
went unsold.