England's discarded batsman and Australia's Ashes heroes are among those looking to fetch the highest bids
Wednesday sees the start of cricket's glitziest – and, pre-Kevin Pietersen, its most divisive – spectacle as the eight Indian Premier League franchises begin two days of bidding on some of the world's leading players for the 2014 competition.
For English fans the biggest name up for auction is undoubtedly Pietersen, who could fetch a record bid following his characteristically low-key falling out with those in charge of the Test side. The auction also offers us a chance to watch people pay out enormous sums of cash for the Australian players who gave England a round stuffing in the recent Ashes series (those with a particular penchant for punishment can dress this up as a rematch and see how rival players with a similar base price – say, Aaron Finch and Ravi Bopara, or David Hussey and Jade Dernbach – fare against each other).
Of the 514 players up for auction, 219 are capped internationals from 10 countries. Pakistan players are once again omitted and the Netherlands' Ryan ten Doeschate is the only player from an associate nation on the list.
The maximum base price (starting bid) for any player is 20m rupees (£195,400) and there are some curious names with such a rating. Ashish Nehra and Brett Lee are noteworthy, largely because the high-bid price presents a rare reminder that they are still playing cricket. Manoj Tiwary prompts a quick Statsguruing to discover an unremarkable record. Samit Patel and Alex Hales prompt guffaws in the wake of their respective latest T20 performances for England, although their high-base price is on account of a special deal with their county, Nottinghamshire, which only allows for them to be released should they fetch the maximum amount.
For many veteran commentators, the IPL "just isn't cricket". The traditionalists will no doubt be pleased that the lure of squillions is not enough to tempt everyone. Eoin Morgan, Stuart Broad, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler are England's most high-profile absentees as they eschew the idea of being handsomely rewarded for their pride-of-a-nation performances in Australia. Kumar Sangakkara and Michael Clarke have also decided that all that noise isn't for them and have opted out.
This year's auction takes place against a backdrop of alleged corruption as well as confusion, the latter brought about by rule changes over player retention that even the franchises have admitted they struggled to fully understand at first. Teams are also operating with an increased salary cap of 600m rupees, and will this year bid in Indian rupees rather than US dollars as before. Fortunately all retention was tied up last week and the auction list has been finalised. So with that, here are 10 players to look out for.
Kevin Pietersen
Obviously. KP is 21st-century cricket's rock star, the Hendrix of The Oval. To recap, for the benefit of absolutely no one: Pietersen has the second-highest international T20 average of all time (0.01 lower than Michael Hussey), has the most runs of any England player in the format and was man of the series when England won the World T20 in the Caribbean in 2010. To say England's most destructive batsman of the modern era is "one to watch" is like saying The Rolling Stones were the biggest band at last year's Glastonbury Festival.
Corey Anderson
Anderson is the highest-rated debutant in the auction and it can safely be said that his base price of 20m rupees comes off the back of a single innings. On New Year's Day this year against West Indies he hit a century from 36 balls, breaking Shahid Afridi's record for the fastest in ODIs. Although his international T20 average is a poor 8.20, his performances since making the New Zealand ODI and Test sides in the latter half of last year have earned him the tag of his country's next big cricketing hope.
Mitchell Johnson
The Barmy Army is unlikely to have many representatives in the IPL crowds, which is fortunate for them as Johnson, as shown throughout the recent Ashes series, has found an emphatic answer to their famous taunting song of old. Arguably the world's most terrifyingly quick bowler right now, Mitch's 90mph-plus inswinging yorkers are likely to be key to the success of whichever side claims him.
Jacques Kallis
Unequivocally acknowledged as the greatest multi-dimensional player of the modern era, Kallis brings both gravitas and an unerring consistency to all formats of the game. It says everything that his retirement from Tests at the age of 38 came as a surprise; compare his excellence at the end with the decline of contemporaries such as Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting at the same age. His T20 batting average is 32.01 at a strike rate of 111.42 and improves in the step up to international level, where it is 35.05 at 119.35.
David Warner
Warner's recent success in Test cricket is the perfect example of the long-term benefits of playing in T20 tournaments. His 180 from 159 balls against India at the Waca in 2012 was shocking for the quantity and range of aggressive strokes he played on his way to his century and he grew even more confident and imaginative in scoring 523 rapid runs at an average of 58.11 in the recent Ashes series. For those who deride T20 as a killer of "proper" batting techniques, Warner's record is a strong counter-argument.
Alex Hales
With England struggling to make a positive start through Alastair Cook and Ian Bell in ODI cricket, Alex Hales has been earmarked as the man to come in and transform the way the team constructs an innings. It still seems odd that he is the world's No1 ranked T20 batsman, which may say a lot about the ICC's ranking system. Still, the Nottinghamshire opener is an outstanding T20 specialist and performed decently in the recent Big Bash League in Australia. How he does in the IPL could be crucial for England's one-day sides.
Glenn Maxwell
Maxwell was the big story of last year's auction when his price of $1m prompted cricket writers to ask "who?" It is telling that he has not been retained by Mumbai Indians after a series of underwhelming performances both in the 2013 competition and recently for Australia's limited-overs sides. With a base price of 10m rupees (£160,000) this time, it is questionable whether any team will consider him worth it, given the limits on foreign players in the squad (a total of nine, of whom four can play in each game).
Ishant Sharma
There is a sense that Sharma is living on borrowed time in the Indian national team in spite of his obvious natural ability. His expensive bowling was lambasted by Indian fans and picked out as one of the key reasons for their dreadful performances to date on the current tour to New Zealand. Even so Ishant has an eye-watering base price of 15m rupees. Given his height and the sense of goodwill towards him among the higher powers of Indian cricket, however, he could yet fetch a high bid.
Ryan ten Doeschate
Ten Doeschate stands out as the only capped player from an associate nation in the auction. Admittedly helped by four not-outs in nine matches, the Dutchman's T20 record at international level is still astounding: an average of 42.80 at 128.91 with the bat and 20.08 with the ball. Given that he also scored two centuries in the 2011 World Cup, has won the ICC Associate and Affiliate Player of the Year Award three times and is widely regarded as one of the greatest players to come from a non-Test-playing nation, he looks a steal at 10m rupees.
Jade Dernbach
After figures of one for 141 from 11 overs in the recent T20 series in Australia, England's most expensive ever limited-overs bowler is remarkably still up for auction for a "meagre" 5m rupees. There is no doubting that Dernbach possesses unique variety among England's bowlers but his career economy rate of 8.42 means his selection for the World T20 in Bangladesh has drawn fans' ire. Perhaps the confusing new rules include a tattoo quota, as this is surely the only explanation for his listing.
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Dan Lucas
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