Sri Lankan master blaster Sanath Jayasuriya leapfrogged fellow-left-handed opening batsman Adam Gilchrist to become the most expensive foreign player after two rounds of bidding in the Indian Premier League.
At the twilight of his international career, the all-rounder was snapped for just under a million dollars, a good $275,000 more than Gilchrist.
He also now has the best base price-selling price ratio at 1: 3.9 (Gilchrist comes in at 1: 1.75) and right now looks unlikely to be overhauled by any of the top players.
The disappointments of the second round were former Aussie pace spearhead Glenn McGrath and Pakistan's Mohammad Yousuf.
With bases prices at $350,000 and $330,000 the two were the priciest of the players to go under the hammer and not bid for in the second round. They will be now added to the reserve pool. Whether their base prices are scaled down in the new pool is not known.
With respect to teams, Mumbai seems to have pulled level with Chennai. The Mukesh Ambani-powered franchise now has Harbhajan and Jayasuriya, in addition to the iconic Sachin Tendulkar.
The team now has spent close to $3 million out of a possible $5.5 million. (Jayasuriya and Harbhajan for 1.85 million. Sachin Tendulkar will have to be paid at least 1.12 million if Jayasurya remains the highest priced player.)
This also means ODI skipper Dhoni may remain the most expensive player of the IPL.
Vijay Mallya's Bangalore also opened its account, bagging Anil Kumble for $500,000 -- twice his base price. Delhi still has not bought anyone.
Though it is too soon to call, another question that has come up after two rounds of bidding is whether the iconic players -- the big four Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid and Yuvraj -- will be able to pass Dhoni, since their prices will be determined by the highest priced player in their teams.
But, on the other hand, there are a truckload of superstars yet to go under the hammer, including Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting, Andrew Symonds, Herschelle Gibbs, and Michael Hussey.
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