There were no bids for Windies batting legend Brian Lara and former captain Chris Gayle when the second round of bidding in the Indian Premier League ended today in Bangalore, the Times of India (ToI) said.
The result is likely to be a major shock for Gayle who had declined to be put under retainer by the West Indies Cricket Board. Gayle had entered the bidding with a reserve price of US$400,000 but the buying trend was towards younger, less experienced players.
ToI said that reputations counted for little as former India captain Sourav Ganguly and several other big names also found no takers for the fourth edition of the IPL even as unheralded Australian Daniel Christian was bought for US$900,000 (RS 4.14 crore apprx) on the second day of the auction today.
It said that veteran Sri Lankan batsman Sanath Jayasuriya also failed to find a buyer. The high-profile list of unsold players also included Mark Boucher and Graeme Swann.
Ganguly’s name did not even come up in the second round of bidding, report said.
A total of 241 of the 353 players in the auction 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 went unsold.
ToI said that New Zealand’s hard-hitting batsman Jesse Ryder (Pune, US$150,000), spinner Murali Karthik (Pune, US$400,000) and Mohammad Kaif (Bangalore, US$130,000) were among the lucky 12 who managed to break into the cash-rich event.
