Legends young and old grace Masters Champions League after day-long auction

Dubai: Australia’s legendary wicket-keeper batsman Adam Gilchrist and South Africa’s greatest all-rounder Jacques Kallis were the top buys in the day-long Masters Champions League (MCL) auction at the Grand Midwest Hotel on Monday.

It was a keen tussle for the best of cricketers who left their mark in international cricket from the start.

Around 250 players were auctioned for the 90 places in the six teams that will play in this tournament scheduled to commence from next month end.

Six teams will enthrall the UAE cricket fans by fielding some of the greatest players in the game.

Leo Lions are owned by Manyata Dutt, wife of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt. Virgo Super Kings are owned by Rhiti Sports, Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s management company. Gemini Arabians are owned by Nalin Khaitan, the captain of Interface cricket team that plays in UAE’s domestic cricket.

Capricorn Commanders are owned by Sohail Khan, who is the brother of Bollywood star Salman Khan.

Libra Legends are owned by Popcorn Sports and Entertainment Private Limited and Sagittarius Soldiers are owned by Ashfaq Sheikh of Orange Limited.

The 12 marquee players were allocated to the teams before the auction. Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly and England spinner Graeme Swann went to Libra Legends while recently retired stars Virender Sehwag and Kumar Sangakkara went to Gemini Arabians.

Mahela Jayawardene and Daniel Vettori became part of Sagittarius Soldiers while former South African skipper Graeme Smith and Twenty20 specialist Azhar Mahmood went to Virgo Super Kings.

New Zealand allrounder Scott Styris and former Zimbabwe skipper Heath Streak went to Leo Lions and Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq and former England captain Michael Vaughan became part of Capricorn Commanders.

The tussle for the six icon players was exciting with Muttiah Muralitharan, Brian Lara, Jacques Kallis, Adam Gilchrist, Paul Collingwood and Brett Lee being sold first in the first round of the auction.

All six players started at a base price of $100,000 (Dh367,000). Intense bidding followed for Kallis and Gilchrist. Kallis ultimately was sold to Libra Legends for $175,000. Gilchrist, on the other hand, went for $170,000 to Sagittarius Soldiers.

The other icon players to be sold were West Indies star Brian Lara for $100,000 to Leo Lions, world’s highest wicket-taker Muttiah Muralitharan for $120,000 to Gemini Arabians, fearsome pacer Brett Lee for 100,000 to Virgo Super Kings and former England captain Paul Collingwood for $140,000 to Capricorn Commanders.

Former UAE captain Khurram Khan and Mohammad Tauqir were also snapped up by Team Sagittarius and Leo Lions respectively.

Zafar Shah, the chairman of the MCL expressed his delight over the successful auction and said: “Our aim is to take cricket to a higher level in UAE and the response we have received is a great step forward in the right direction.”

Gulf News spoke to all the team owners who all expressed happiness over the team composition they have managed through the auction. Even at the closing stages the auction was intense with Richard Levi who had a base price 20,000 went for a whopping $152, 000 to Gemini Arabians.

Here are the squads: