Shopping time…

With just over 50 days remaining for the third edition of cricket’s commercial extravaganza, each of the eight teams want their share of the imports up for auction in the next couple of hours. We will have a breif look at the key players in their priced categories.

$20,ooo: Of the four players listed in this category, Ashley Noffke(considering the promise all through his injury rigged career) and Ryan ten Doeschate, the dutch star player would be good buys considering the lowest base price on them. Teams would rather wait for Weeraratne to perform on the bigger scene despite his name for big hitting abiities and being a decent bowling option.

$50,000: I would be interested in Welegedara, Luke Pomersbach, Clint McKay, Yusuf Abdulla, Tyron Henderson in the initial rounds over the rest of the pack considering their recent form and given their T20 reputation. I would wait on Darren Bravo to live upto his reputation rather make a premature investment on him.

$100,000: Shane Bond, Shakib Al Hassan, Wavell Hinds,  Jonathan Trott  might be the first round hot picks. It would be really interesting to see how the franchises plan on the Pakistani players considering the Indian Government’s Love-Hate ties with Pakistan. This is crucial as Rana Naved, Umar Gul,Abdur Razzaq, Mohd.Aamer are quality buys on any given day.

$200,000: The Self Proclaimed king (at least on the scalp :p) of T20, Keiron Pollard is the most talked about player in this auction. With his heroics in the Champions League, it would be a steal if the teams snatch him for $750,000 or less. Wayne Parnell, Eoin Morgon, Doug Bollinger would be on every team’s plate especially with Doug’s performance in the Chanpions league on the Indian Soil. I was not surprised with Mark Ramprakash’s inclusion in the auctoin with his healthy average in T20s ( just over 30), but would be really surprised if he is bought for more than $400,000.  Sohail Tanvir might miss out on his pay cut but lets wait and see how the teams decide on buying the imports from Pakistan.

$250,000: I was surprised to see  Graeme Swann in this bracket but not Keiron Pollard.  But considering the worst case Swann will pocket a bounty of $250,000 in the worst case considering the sum he earns in England. Lets wait and see on Afridi (another import from pakistan), but the teams looking for Haddin would be Mumbai and Rajasthan with the other teams already having a healthy bench for wicket keepers. This might not be a good news for Haddin considering his value versus the pay but most likely Mumbai might outbid Rajsathan considering Rajasthan’s cheap buys, thats what I am speculating on.

With just few more hours remaining, the results for the new editon of ” Who is the new Millionaire” will be out. Watch out for more on this space…