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Next up for auction are: Stephen Fleming, Graeme Smith, Herschelle Gibbs, Chris Gayle, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Younis Khan, Mohammad Asif, Jacques Kallis, Zaheer Khan, Virender Sehwag, Sreesanth

During the lunch break, while close to 100 people (agents, actors, CEOs, players etc) discussed events, IS Bindra, member of the IPL governing council, had interesting things to say.

He reckons he has not seen anything quite like this auction in 30 years of his association with cricket – even the on-field action has failed to excite him as much. He went on to praise the free-economy principle which helps the market determine the players’ price and not the selectors or selection committees. But in the same breath he had to wish there was no monopoly on the access to what was happening inside. “I really wish you could have seen it live,” Bindra told reporters.

The Bangalore franchise have bought Jacques Kallis for US$900,000. It means Rahul Dravid, their icon player, becomes the fifth cricketer to break the million-dollar barrier in four rounds of bidding so far. Chris Gayle became Kolkata’s highest successful bid - US$800,000 - meaning that Sourav Ganguly, their icon, would be worth at least US$920,000 now.

The other tradings in the fourth round: Stephen Fleming bought by Chennai for his base price of US$350,000, Graeme Smith by Jaipur for US$475,000, Herschelle Gibbs by Hyderabad for US$575,000, Shoaib Malik by Delhi for US$500,000, Shahid Afridi by Hyderabad for US$675,000, Younis Khan by Jaipur for his base price of US$225,000, Mohammad Asif by Delhi for US$650,000, Zaheer Khan by Bangalore for US$450,000, Sreesanth by Mohali for US$625,000.

The auction for the players has finally got underway, late by just 35 minutes. Although the journalists around are trying the hardest to find out the reason for the delay, the organisers are blasé about it. “This is not a one-day international,” said one PR person. “People have come, they sat and relaxed for a while, and it is underway now.” So be it.

We have been told there will be regular updates of which player has been bought by who for how much. We have also been told this is expected to be approximately a 12-hour affair, I just added 35 minutes to the assignment. Wish I was being paid on an hourly basis.

Meanwhile, the process to decide what teams the biggest stars of world cricket today will be playing for has started not far away from us.

The first signs are that Indian players, because they will be bigger brands, will be sought after more than the foreign players. There will be arguments over who out of Adam Gilchrist and Mahendra Dhoni is a more valuable pure cricketer in Twenty20. But Dhoni has been bought by Chennai for more than double the money Gilchrist has gone for, and he's accounted for 30% of Chennai's salary cap.

Shane Warne and Gilchrist are interestingly the first two Australians to be picked: they are both retired (or about to) and even if the Pakistan tour goes ahead, will be available to play in the IPL. The same could be true for Shoaib Akhtar, who is not on the best of terms with PCB.

On another note, Sourav Ganguly is now guaranteed 15% more than US$425,000 - that is what Kolkata paid for Shoaib Akhtar, and as an icon player Ganguly earns 15% more than the highest bid. It could even go up further.

It's Chennai who set the ball rolling by having US$2.1 million dollars on two players alone. Are these trends or are these unrelated, a clearer picture will emerge after the next few rounds.

The first hard news out - and it's big news. India's captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, has been bought by the Chennai franchise for US$1.5 million. The other first picks: Adam Gilchrist has gone to Hyderabad for US$700,000, Muttiah Muralitharan to Chennai for US$600,000, Mahela Jayawardene to Mohali for US$475,000, Shane Warne to Jaipur for US$450,000 and Shoaib Akhtar to Kolkata for US$425,000. So Chennai has already spent US$2.1 million and grabbed two big names. It is unlikely that anyone will beat Dhoni's figure but in these times anything is possible.

Mumbai entered the fray in the second round of bidding, picking up Sanath Jayasuriya for US$975,000 (his base price was US$250,000) and Harbhajan Singh for US$850,000 (base price US$250,000).

It means Sachin Tendulkar has become the second player after Mahendra Singh Dhoni to cross the million-dollar mark. As an icon he will stand to earn 15% more than the most paid player in the franchise (Jayasuriya) - which translates to US$1.12 million.

"And there's a Duleep final going on behind," I said to Aakash Chopra as he walked out of the Wankhede Stadium after the first day's play of the Duleep Trophy final. I knew Chopra would see where I was coming from. "And there's a Duleep final going on," he echoed. We were seeing the sign of the times.

We were outside the BCCI office, the hub of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which you have to pass when you are coming out of the Wankhede Stadium. About 50 journalists, including camera-persons, more than the audience present at the Duleep match, had gathered outside the office because there was a private meeting going on to brief the franchises on how to go about with the bidding process supposed to start today.

While the results of the election had not yet been officially announced, the results were widely accepted, and Sharad Pawar came out of the meeting room to briefly address the media. Pawar thanked TS Krishna Murthy, the observer, for "taking pains" to "clear the way for a smooth election". He added that his aim was to "develop basic infrastructure", and hoped to get "full co-operation" from Ranbir Singh Mahendra, the outgoing president. He also said he wanted to give "support and strength to the younger generation." It was hard to grab more than snatches of Pawar's statement, as cameramen and photographers jockeyed for space, screaming and shouting. Even the few words that made it out of the melee were only possible after Lalit Modi, president of the Rajasthan Cricket Association, yelled, "If you don't stop screaming we can't even get to first base," mixing sporting metaphors and betraying the time he spent in USA.

Amid massive chaos, yelling and screaming, members of the Sharad Pawar group charged out of the room where the elections were happening and proclaimed victory by the thumping margin of 20 to 10. But soon after another member emerged and said the margin was 20-11, with the 11th vote being the the chairman's vote, cast by Ranbir Singh Mahendra. While no official confirmation of the result or the margin was available at the time, there was no denial from the Jagmohan Dalmiya-backed Mahendra group.

While the vote for the president went 20-11, the remaining members of the Pawar group are also learned to have won. This means MP Pandove (Joint Secretary), N Srinivasan (Treasurer) and Niranjan Shah (Secretary) have all won. The margin in the last case is believed to be 18-13.

Even before an official announcement has come from TS Krishna Murthy, the observer, the celebrations have begun in right earnest.