A 'life-changing' event for Anderson

Corey Anderson, who fetched $750,000 in the IPL auction, could barely believe or sleep with the money being thrown around in the IPL auction. He has been giving bowlers and bowling coaches sleepless nights since he scored the fastest ODI century on the first day of this year, but it was time for him to struggle to sleep as he watched on nervously and then responded to congratulatory calls and texts.

"I thought it was crazy," Anderson, now part of John Wright's Mumbai Indians, told Fairfax Media. "To see it unfold in front of your eyes, it felt like a little game you might play with your mates then you have to pinch yourself and realise that it's real money they're throwing around. It hasn't sunk in yet. It feels like you are putting a value on yourself. People want you and you're expected to do things now for that kind of money. It feels like you're a house and someone wants to move in. It feels very strange.

"People say I've had a pretty good year but it's been the last couple of months that were pretty good," Anderson said. "That's caused all the havoc about what's happened. It's a strange feeling thinking that one event like that can change everything."

Going by previous auction standards, Anderson was expected to attract at least a million dollars, but he is not complaining. He is still pleased he went for four-and-a-half times his base price. "As soon as I got that first bid I was pretty ecstatic," Anderson said. "From there on in it was just a waiting game. Hopefully I'll get some sleep then get ready for training. It's a life-changing event and pretty exciting."

Anderson also saw New Zealand team-mates Ross Taylor, Martin Guptill and Jeese Ryder attract no bids. Like many observers, Anderson, too, failed to make sense of the dynamics of business. "It's pretty surreal," he said. "Watching the auction all unfold, it's hard to explain. There's times when you think you're going to get picked up and times you're not too sure. You see people who aren't picked up and wonder why, then guys are picked up for more than what you might think." Anderson himself might have lost out because Glenn Maxwell's name came out of the bag first, and the teams spent a lot of their enthusiasm on his auction, which meant there wasn't enough desperation to push Anderson's price further up.

The auction took place two days before New Zealand's second Test against India, at Basin Reserve. Anderson followed it on the Internet in his team hotel in Wellington, in the company of bowling coach Shane Bond, physiotherapist Paul Close and security officer Sam Dickason.