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PK Iyer, the CEO of the Hyderabad franchise, praised the “incredible team spirit” of VVS Laxman, who, according to Iyer, had withdrawn his “icon” status for the Hyderabad team. The act now has given them a bigger budget for buying players.

Had Laxman become the icon player for Hyderabad, he would have got 15% more salary than the next-highest-priced cricketer. Moreover, Hyderabad have decided to make Laxman the captain of the side.

Ishant Sharma’s superb performance in Australia was rewarded with a cool bid of $50,000 short of a million, his base price being $150,000. With that he became Kolkata’s biggest draft, sending Sourav Ganguly into the million club.

RP Singh was the other big draft among the bowlers: Hyderabad bought him for $875,000, which rose from his base price of $200,000. Piyush Chawla, Dale Steyn, Murali Kartik, and Munaf Patel were the only other bowlers whose final bid was more than twice their respective base prices. Chawla went for $400,000 (base price: $125,000) to Mohali, Steyn for $325,000 (base price: 150,000) to Bangalore, Kartik for $425,000 (base price: $200,000) to Kolkata, and Munaf for $275,000 (base price: $100,000) to Jaipur.

One of the most competitive rounds of bidding, according to Lalit Modi, ended up rewarding India’s Twenty20 heroes – Robin Uthappa, Rohit Sharma, and Gautam Gambhir – and also Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina, and Manoj Tiwary. David Hussey was the surprising pick too in the round of batsmen.

Uthappa went for the highest price in the seventh round of bidding: grossing $800,000 (base price: $200,000) from Mumbai. Sharma went to Hyderabad for a sum of $750,000 (base price: $150,000), and Gambhir to home team Delhi for $725,000 (base price: $200,000). Delhi dished out $675,000 for Manoj Tiwary, whose base price was $100,000.

News comes in regarding Mohammad Yousuf. The matter was heard today before the Hon’ble Arbitrator Mr. Justice B. P. Saraf (Retd) and the tribunal has not vacated the stay on Yousuf from taking part in any other rival league of the Indian Cricket League, such as the IPL by any further orders.

As per the order of 15th December, 2007 Mohammad Yousuf is restrained from taking part in any other rival league of the ICL such as the IPL and to maintain status quo as of that date.

Just the sight of Preity Zinta, who came out with Lalit Modi to make the latest announcements, sent the photographers into a frenzy. Cameras whirred, flashes went off without any signs of stopping. Modi requested them to stop after they had had enough so that he could go on with further announcements, but the photographers just wouldn’t stop. He finally lost his cool and threatened to not give any further updates, and that was when Zinta intervened.

“We have more rounds of bidding going on, so can you please co-operate?", she said. Then another “please” with a flashing smile. And as if she had turned off an imaginary switch, there was silence and Modi went on with his announcements peacefully.

Dinesh Karthik proved to be the most expensive wicketkeeper outside the star ones - Dhoni, Gilchrist and McCullum. Delhi bought Karthik for US$525,000 (base price: US$200,000), and they bought AB de Villiers too, for US$300,000 (base price: US$200,000). de Villiers, it must be remembered, started off his international career as a wicketkeeper.

Chennai, too, bought a second wicketkeeper in Parthiv Patel for US$325,000 (base price: US$150,000). Kamran Akmal was bought by Jaipur for his reserve price of US$150,000. Tatenda Taibu, whose base price was US$125,000, didn't attract any buyers.

Meanwhile, an interesting announcement from Andrew Symonds: He is likely to pull out of the Pakistan tour, which explains why he has attracted a far higher bid than Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden. Ponting went for US$400,000 and Hayden for US$375,000. Though Symonds' stand was made public after he had been signed on by Hyderabad, one wonders whether the franchises didn’t already know of it. That will explain to a large extent why the bidding for Symonds went as high as US$1.35m.

That said, Ponting and Hayden are not bad investments at all. Because if the Pakistan tour is cancelled, Kolkata and Chennai will have hit the jackpot. And if they are not available, or available for less than four matches, they will receive only 25% of their salary.

Irfan Pathan was Mohali’s big pick for US$925,000, becoming their most expensive player after Yuvraj Singh, the icon player. Albie Morkel, Cameron White, and Yusuf Pathan were the other three allrounders who made big leaps from their base prices.

Morkel was bought by Chennai for US$675,000 (base price: US$225,000), White for US$500,000 by Bangalore (base price: US$100,000) and Yusuf for US$475,000 by Jaipur (base price: US$100,000). Interestingly Yusuf, who will be playing with Shane Warne in Jaipur, cost more than Warne. Scott Styris surprisingly didn’t draw any bidders for more than his base price, and went to Hyderabad for US$175,000.

With Andrew Symonds grossing $1.35m, Mahendra Dhoni, with a whopping $1.5m paycheque from Chennai, looks likely to be the highest-priced cricketer before the day ends. That Chennai have no “icon” player - who by right will get 15 per cent more than the highest-paid cricketer – could have played a role in the high bid, and also that the Indians will make bigger brands. The question right now is: will anybody get more than Dhoni? Even Sachin Tendulkar?

Mumbai’s highest scalp right now is Sanath Jayasuriya – worth $975,000. Since they have procured Harbhajan Singh for $850,000, they can’t be going for another high-priced cricketer. They are now obliged to pay Tendulkar a minimum of $1,121,250 (115 per cent of what Jayasuriya is getting). If they pay Tendulkar the minimum stipulated amount, they would have spent $2,946,250 on three players alone. So it depends on what bargains they can work out with the rest of the squad how much more Mumbai can play Tendulkar.

Most likely, if somebody is to get a higher bid than Dhoni, the bid will have to come from a side that has no icon player. But it is open to doubt as to who will make a bigger brand-player combination than Dhoni. Currently Virender Sehwag stands a chance of outearning Dhoni, if the next best player picked by Delhi fetches more than $13.04m

Andrew Symonds became the second-most expensive player in the IPL, as Hyderabad bought him for US$1.35m (his base price being $250,000). The others picked in the third round of the bidding include: Brett Lee bought by Mohali for US$900,000 (base price: $300,000), Brendon McCullum bought by Kolkata for $700,000 (base price: $175,000), Jacob Oram bought by Chennai for $675,000 (base price: $200,000), Daniel Vettori bought by Delhi for $625,000 (base price: $250,000).

Ricky Ponting and Mathew Hayden didn’t draw too much of money, their tour to Pakistan could have had something to do with it. Ponting waw bought by Kolkata for $400,000 and Hayden by Chennai for $375,000.