LOL If you want to look at hot chicks the Auction is not the place. 80% of the time it will be focussed on Richard Madley the auctioneer

This year wont be half as interesting the players are much lesser. Last time was a fresh Auction with every player up for grabs so was extremely interesting

i find the purchases absolutely baffling

mitchell johnson over wright or rampaul?

Jaya a sensational T20 batsman since he has started opening the innings especially under these conditions.

SOme of the NonSelections baffling especially Owais Shah who is not part of the national team and would be available throughout. English players at a disadvantage as they are hardly available not only this year but every year but if you have spare funds Wright and Prior definately worth a bid. Iqbal, Thranaga and Smth were never going to get a bid  Overseas spots are too precious to waste on players like these IMO

Jadeja a great signing. not surprised he fetched such a high price.

Narine for $700k er... wow! defo worth taking a punt on him for sure but $700k is serious money for such an unproven talent.

Looks like the strong teams have improved and the weak ones got weaker. could be some really one sided games this year Raj look utterly f ucked if Watson doesnt play the majority or their games.

Yup ROlo.,Got that wrong. MI actually did the bargain basement buying which totally caught me by sshock and probably some of the best buying. Still think MI will be fantastic, as can be seen by the team of Nugget.

Delhi batting looks scary with Birt/Finch also there, so KP, Sehwag, Warner, Jaya and Bith/Finch. They have a lot of Indian seamers (Irfan,Aaron, Dinda, Agarkar) so they will probably play all foreign batsman/keeper or maybe 3 and van De Merwe. Can see them reaching the semis. Chennai as usual a very strong squad. KKR and Bangalore still look very good.

Still think RR can be a fighting unit, they always look poor but will do OK. Dravid, Watson, Rahane, Rosco, Hodge and Mineria a decent line up with probably Botha to play. Bowling a bit weak though

Punjab have gone backwards look absolutely useless. If Pune doesnt play the wooden spoon comes to them. Only bright spot with S Marsh poor form is he will probably be available throughout

DC look average but some quality bowlers in INdian conditions (I Sharma and A Mishra) as well as Steyn and Theron. Batting look poor with only Sanga quality. Parthiv and Dhawan OK but rest is White, JP and Christian and dont know how many they can play of these.

Lets see how the Pune situation unfolds else we will have another round of bidding with Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Ryder, Smith, M Marsh, Furgusson and Angelo Matthews being in demand. Yuvraj will stay out this year I assime

Absolutely farcical situation there

It is for 1 year. Pro-rata.

Also in this case Jadeja does not get the $2 MN. He gets 950000 which was the original price he was sold at last year. All players get what they got last year irrespective of how much they were bbid for. If lower then they get paid the difference and vice versa

Yup Lix - Was due some updating after the events of the recent weeks.

Pune who had pulled out are back in. BCCI seems to have bent to someone after several years which is good to see though this tinkering of rules makes the tournament lack credibility.

The biggest compromise is that PUne will get 3.6 Million in this auction but the best players have been taken i.e. Jadeja, Jayawardene, McCullum etc and they will; have to make do with the rest

The other area that is pending approval of the other franchises is 5 foreign players. If Pune is allowed that then I believe they will compete this year else they will compete with Punjab for the wooden spoon

They will also be able to get players in the transfer window so lets see if any teams sell them some of their stars. I doubt it very much unless Pune pays some crazy money.

Players that Pune could buy who are unsold from the auction are the following - Owais Shah, Matt Prior, Marty twotoes Guptill, Kevin Obrien, Swannie, Dwayne Smith, Brendan Taylor.

Will still be a weak team but with 5 foreign players the team they could put out would be

Manish Pandey, Saurav Ganguly (Unfortunately),G SMith, Jesse Ryder, Uthappa, Mitchelll Marsh, Angelo Matthews, Nathan

Is the 5 foreigners for everyone or just a 1 yr consession to Pune? Would actually even things up a bit if everyone played 5 cos its normally the teams with the most indian talent that do the best. (RCB the exception but Gayle is a freak)

Anyone else think Symmonds had his contract paid up so Mumbai can fill another overseas slot?  $850k is nothing to them and Symmo wasnt gonna do anything this year anyway.

Guptill would be a very decent signing for someone right now. world class fielder and can play every game. could pick him up for $100-200k I'd imagine.

Yup Gupta will be a good pick.

Pune may have this option for 1 year if other franchises agree. BCCI started this nonsense with MI in the CLT20 so they have set a precedent.

The 4 top teams all have quality India batsman  Even Bangalore have Indias best batsman across formats in Virat Kohli, Saurabh Tiwari who was exception for MI in IPL3 and Chetashwar Pujara, a very good talent, Compare that to Punjab for who Kartik was the best batsman and the valthaty and Deccan who had only Shikhar Dhawan and you know why the table ended up as it did.

Pune may have missed the bus with the Auction but 5 foreign players will make up for that.

The other franchises have refused Punes request for 5 foreign players so expect them to strggle. Stiill think they will go ahead of Punjab but dont seem to have much else going for them.

IPL team seems to be obsessed with Aussie including some mediocre ones like Luke Ronchi,Chris Lynn , Darren Lehmann, Damien Martyn (Last 2 very good at their peak but not at 40) and no takers for some seriously good players like Guptill, Swann, Prior etc. If you have money in the kitty and you pay players pro rata why not take these players as even if they are available for 60% of the tournament they will be worth it.

Was beyond me how Gayle was not bid for in the last auction. He had not signed the central contract with the WICB and would have been available for most of the tournament. People focussed onn how Ganguly was not picked but I was stunned about Gayle. Bangalore used common sense and have benefitted hugely.

Didnt see Guptill's 6. Some of the biiigest I have seen in Dhoni against Punjab a couple of years ago and Mark Waugh in Perth or Adelaide that went onto the roof.

The same way they measure whether a ball with hit the stumps when it is stopped by the pads. Same Technology

Richard Levi has been signed by the Reliance Money machine.

Satish is with Punjab now. They did a swap with Kartik. Would be Suman or Tare but the area definaately a weak link.

CSK and RCB as good IMO. Delhi and KKR can also beat them on a good day. MI's bggest asset is their bowling, batting still has some holes with only Rohit Sharma and maybe KP match winners in this format under tehse conditions. Compare that with RCB batting who have 4 match winners Dilly, GAYLE, Virat, AB and DD which I am in total awe of Jaya, Sehwag, KP, Warner and even Finch/Birt

i only put 3 overseas in !   must be losing it. yeah, would put mitch in at 7 then. very strong team.

i only play the match market.

ipl is the shiznits

can't wait, only 36 sleeps left

Ross Taylor to Delhi Daredevils from Rajasthan Royals

Delhi might want to make a move for a bowler. Royals not interested in competing by the looks of it.

no idea what these smaller teams are playing at giving away their best players to the bigger teams.

DC give away Ohja and KP
Punjab let DK go

now Raj happy to let Rosco leave. bonkers stuff given they're all under contract.

Rajathank Royals get Owais Shah.

Good Sense prevails. I am a huge fan of this guy an shocked he is not in the ENgland T20 side.

RR doing the sensisble thing. Should have still kept Ross Taylor but this is not too bad.

He's just as good a batsman as Taylor imo. has more shots when set. Taylor tends to just slog evrything through the line legside. Rosco obviously a far better fielder but Owais likely to be supurb value and win a fair few games for RR off his own bat.

Luke Wright also signs for Pune. Looks like the Pune team management had a long meeting today being a holiday in INdiaa.

Good utility players. Should get a few games