Dubai: Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni proved that despite his poor outing as captain in the recent one-day series against South Africa, he is still the most wanted player in the Indian Premier League.
He was the first pick for new franchise Pune, owned by New Rising, proving that the ageing star is still a valuable player.
Equally in demand was Suresh Raina, considered the best limited overs cricketer in India. He was snapped up by Rajkot, owned by Intex, as their first pick. Both Dhoni and Raina were teammates in the Chennai Super Kings team that has been suspended for two years following the spot-fixing and betting scandal in the IPL 2013 series — and were picked up for $2.7 million (Dh9.9 million) each.
Pune got the right to make the first pick for making the first successful bid as the new team, and they went for Dhoni, who had captained Chennai Super Kings to two IPL title triumphs and four finishes as runners-up. He is also the longest-serving captain of the IPL and led the team to two title triumphs in the Champions League, too.
Raina is the all-time leading run-getter in the IPL having scored 3,699 runs in 132 games and hit one century and 25 fifties. He has also picked up 24 wickets.
Dhoni was earning $2 million per season at Chennai while Raina used to get $1.5 million.
The other star players picked by Pune are Ajinkya Rahane, R Ashwin, Steven Smith and Faf du Plessis, while Rajkot got Ravindra Jadeja, Brendon McCullum, James Faulkner and Dwayne Bravo. The IPL player draft was held in Mumbai following the suspension of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan from the tournament for two years as a result of the interim report of the Supreme Court-appointed Justice Lodha Committee on the spot-fixing and betting scandal.
Out of the 50 Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals players available for the draft, 10 were picked with each team picking up five. All the other Super Kings and Royals players not picked in the draft will now go into the main player auction to be held on February 6 in Bengaluru.
The selection of the players went as expected, with both the teams going for the players based on their form. The only player who missed out was all-rounder Shane Watson. The general trend in the selection was for batting all-rounders. Surprisingly, both teams did not show any interest in fast bowlers.
McCullum was the first overseas player to be snapped up, going third for Rajkotat $1.6 million. This will be McCullum’s fourth IPL franchise having represented Kolkata Knight Riders, Kochi Tuskers Kerala and Chennai. Last year, Chennai Super Kings got him for $627,000. The ninth edition of the IPL will be held from April 9 to May 29.
How the picks went:
First pick: Mahendra Singh Dhoni to Pune, Raina to Rajkot.
Second pick: Ajinkya Rahane to Pune Ravindra Jadeja to Rajkot.
Third pick: R Ashwin to Pune, Brendon McCullum to Rajkot.
Fourth pick: Steve Smith to Pune, James Faulkner to Rajkot.
Fifth pick: Faf du Plessis to Pune, Dwayne Bravo to Rajkot.
