Lara in demand

– In highest price band for IPL auction

Former West Indies Cricket captain Brian Lara might not have played active cricket for four years, but he is one of the 21 names to attract the highest reserve price of US$400,000 ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) players’ auction, to be held in Bangalore on January 8 and 9. 

Alongside Lara, in the same bracket, are the former Australian wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist; the Indian trio of Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh; and IPL first-timers Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Graeme Swann, Michael Yardy and Luke Wright, all part of England’s 2010 World Twenty20 winning side. 

Brett Lee, Shaun Marsh and Mahela Jayawardene, who have all been released by Kings XI Punjab, will also enter the auction at the highest base price. 

They will be joined by other prominent IPL names such as Daniel Vettori, Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor, Graeme Smith, AB de Villiers, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Chris Gayle. 

Almost as interesting as the names who have made it to the auction list of 416 are the players who haven’t. 

The most notable absentees- – in addition to Pakistan’s cricketers who continue to get the IPL cold shoulder– are some of Australia’s big-gest current players: Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke and Mitchell Johnson. Andrew Flintoff, who became the most expensive buy in the IPL when Chennai Super Kings signed him for US$ 1.55 million ahead of the second season, has been left out as well. Also missing from the 2011 pool are the retired Australian pair of Matthew Hayden and Glenn McGrath, who played in the previous stagings of the IPL after ending their careers. 

Jacques Kallis and Muttiah Muralitharan, who featured significantly for Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai in the first three seasons, find themselves in the US$300,000 bracket. Zaheer Khan and Yusuf Pathan are the big Indian names in that list, which also includes Andrew Symonds, Shaun Tait, Kumar Sangakkara, and Angelo Mathews. 

Sourav Ganguly, who was Kolkata Knight Riders’ “icon” in the first three seasons, has been relegated to the third band of players, whose base price is US$200,000. Gautam Gambhir, who led Delhi in 2010, and the Australian pair of Michael Hussey and Doug Bollinger, who played crucial roles in Chennai’s victorious IPL and Champions League campaigns in 2010, are also in that bracket; along with Dirk Nannes, Eoin Morgan, Robin Uthappa and Sanath Jayasuriya. 

Eighty-seven players are at the next level — a base price of US$100,000 — the biggest names being Tamim Iqbal, R Ashwin, Morne Morkel and Ben Hilfenhaus.