Dhoni was bid the highest $1.5Million (Rs 6 crores) till 1st round.
Mumbai, India - Feb 20, 2008

Shane Warne and Adam Gilchrist were expensive but it was Indian one day captain MS Dhoni who fetched the most exorbitant price in the earliest round of sales at the Indian Premier League player auction in Mumbai.

Mahendra Dhoni received the highest bid at the player auction for cricket's Indian Premier League, less than a month before the start of an event that's raised more than $1.8 billion before a ball is bowled.

The Chennai team bid $1.5 million for India's Dhoni and $600,000 for Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka, Lalit Modi, the league commissioner, told reporters in Mumbai today.

The Hyderabad team bid $700,000 for Australia's Adam Gilchrist, Mohali bid $475,000 for Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardena, Jaipur offered $450,000 for Shane Warne of Australia and Kolkata bid $425,000 for Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar.

Eight franchises are bidding from a group of almost 90 players in the newly created league that starts April 18. The annual league is the latest leap for cricket's twenty-over-per- side format that's proved a hit with fans and sponsors less than five years after its inception. Billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Vijay Mallya were among the team owners who bid for players.

Shane Warne and Adam Gilchrist were expensive but it was Indian one day captain MS Dhoni who fetched the most exorbitant price in the earliest round of sales at the Indian Premier League player auction in Mumbai.

The start of the auction, which is taking place in the ballroom of Mumbai's Hilton Towers, was delayed by around 45 minutes by the late arrival of several team owners.

English auctioneer Richard Madley is presiding over the sales.

Team	Owner's Name	Players	Bid Amount (figures in USD)
Bangalore Royal Challengers	Vijay Mallya	Rahul Dravid (icon) Anil Kumble Jacques Kallis Zaheer Khan Mark Boucher Cameron White Wasim Jaffer Dale Steyn Nathan Bracken Shivnarine Chanderpaul	15% more $5,00,000 $9,00,000 $4,50,000 $4,50,000 $5,00,000 $1,50,000 $3,25,000 $3,25,000 $2,00,000
Mumbai	Mukesh Ambani	Sachin Tendulkar (icon) Harbhajan Singh Sanath Jayasuriya Shaun Pollock Robin Uthappa Lasith Malinga Dilhara Fernando Loots Bosman	15% more $8,50,000 $9,75,000 $5,50,000 $8,00,000 $3,50,000 $1,50,000 $1,75,000
Kolkata	Shah Rukh Khan	Sourav Ganguly (icon) Shoaib Akhtar Ricky Ponting Brendon McCullum Chris Gayle Ajit Agarkar David Hussey Ishant Sharma Murali Kartik Umar Gul Tatenda Taibu	15% more $4,25,000 $4,00,000 $7,00,000 $8,00,000 $3,30,000 $6,75,000 $9,50,000 $4,25,000 $1,50,000 $1,25,000
Delhi Daredevils	GMR Holdings	Virender Sehwag (icon) Daniel Vettori Shoaib Malik Mohammad Asif Dinesh Karthik AB de Villiers Farveez Maharoof Tillakaratne Dilshan Manoj Tiwary Gautam Gambhir Glenn McGrath	15% more $6,25,000 $5,00,000 $6,50,000 $5,25,000 $3,00,000 $2,25,000 $2,50,000 $6,75,000 $7,25,000 $3,50,000
Chennai Super Kings	India Cement	M.S.Dhoni Muttiah Muralitharan Matthew Hayden Jacob Oram Stephen Fleming Parthiv Patel Joginder Sharma Albie Morkel Suresh Raina Makhaya Ntini Michael Hussey	$1.5 million $6,00,000 $3,75,000 $6,75,000 $350,000 $3,25,000 $2,25,000 $6,50,000 $6,50,000 $2,00,000 $3,50,000
Mohali	Preity Zinta & Ness. Wadia	Yuvraj Singh (icon) Mahela Jayawardene Kumar Sangakkara Brett Lee S.Sreesanth Irfan Pathan Ramesh Powar Piyush Chawla Simon Katich Ramnaresh Sarwan	15% more $4,75,000 $7,00,000 $9,00,000 $6,25,000 $9,25,000 $1,70,000 $4,00,000 $2,00,000 $2,25,000
Jaipur	Emerging Media	Shane Warne Graeme Smith Younis Khan Kamran Akmal Yusuf Pathan Mohammad Kaif Munaf Patel Justin Langer	$4,50,000 $4,75,000 $2,25,000 $1,50,000 $4,75,000 $6,75,000 $2,75,000 $2,00,000
Hyderabad	Deccan Chronicle	Adam Gilchrist Andrew Symonds Herschelle Gibbs Shahid Afridi Scott Styris VVS Laxman Rohit Sharma Chamara Silva RP Singh Chaminda Vaas Nuwan Zoysa	$7,00,000 $1.35 million $5,75,000 $6,75,000 $1,75,000 $375,000 $7,50,000 $1,00,000 $8,75,000 $2,00,000 $1,10,000

Australian left-handed batsman Michael Hussey, who had a base price of USD 2,00,000, went unsold and has gone to the reserve pool, joining compatriot Glenn McGrath and Pakistan's Md Yousuf.

Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds was bought by Hyderabad franchisee Deccan Chronicle for a whopping price of $1.35 million. His base price was $2,50,000. Symonds's became the second most-expensive player after three rounds of bidding that saw 17 players going under the hammer.

With Lee's price kept at $9,00,000, Mohali's icon player Yuvraj Singh's price at the moment is 15 per cent more, which is $1.035 million.

Twenty20 cricket is a shortened version of the game designed to be attractive to both spectators at the ground and TV viewers. In this form, both teams play a single innings and bat for a maximum of 20 overs.

The 44-day IPL starts on April 18 and will feature 59 matches.