Pollard among nine overseas withdrawals from BPL auction

Nine foreign cricketers, including West Indies' Kieron Pollard, have withdrawn from the Bangladesh Premier League player auction that will be held today in Dhaka. The BPL governing council, however, has also added two overseas players to the auction - West Indian batsman Marlon Samuels, and Sri Lankan opener Tillakaratne Dilshan.

Pollard played for Dhaka Gladiators, last season's champions, and this year he was in the golden category, which has a salary between $75,000 and $150,000. England batsman Michael Lumb, who was in category A, also pulled out. The other players to withdraw were Craig Ervine (Zimbabwe), Cameron Merchant (New Zealand), James Taylor and Ed Young (England), Michael Smith (South Africa), Fawad Alam (Pakistan) and Chesney Hughes (West Indies).

Pakistan seamer Yasir Arafat, Netherlands allrounder Ryan Ten Doeschate and England allrounder Peter Trego were included in category A, while in category B, Aaron O'Brian (Australia) and Ahmed Shehzad (Pakistan) were late entries. Jacob Oram and Nathan McCullum, from New Zealand, were also added.

Adnan Raza (Pakistan), Carlton Baugh (West Indies), Chris Schofield (England), Sean Ervine (Zimbabwe), Kaushal Lokuarachchi (Sri Lanka) and Taijul Islam (Bangladesh) were in category C.