First signs - Indians are big business

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.