Apna Pakistan

	Misbah-ul-Haq was the first high-profile player to be signed up in the second round of auctions © AFP

Misbah-ul-Haq, the Pakistan batsman, and India’s Under-19 World Cup-winning captain Virat Kohli have been bought by the Bangalore Royal Challengers in the second round of the Indian Premier League’s player auction in Mumbai on Tuesday. Misbah, who nearly took Pakistan to victory in the ICC World Twenty20 last year, was bought for US$125,000.

Dimitri Mascarenhas, the England allrounder, was signed on by the Jaipur franchise for $100000, making him the first England player to be auctioned at the IPL. There had been a question mark over the participation of English players - excluded from the first round of the auction - in the IPL season, as it overlaps with the beginning of the county season. However, his county, Hampshire, has said it will give Mascarenhas the necessary no-objection certificate.

The Jaipur franchise also signed up South African fast bowler Morne Morkel ($60,000), Australian allrounder Shane Watson ($125000), Pakistan left-arm fast bowler Sohail Tanvir ($100000) and a couple of Indian U-19 players in Taruwar Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja.

The Kolkata franchise, now named the Kolkata Knight Riders, has bought two Pakistanis - Salman Butt ($100,000) and Mohammad Hafeez ($100,000) - and two U-19 players in Siddarth Kaul and Iqbal Abdulla.

The Australians James Hopes ($300,000) and Luke Pomersbach ($50,000) and New Zealand bowler Kyle Mills ($150,000), have been bought by the Mohali franchise, in addition to two U-19 players in Tanmay Srivastava and Ajitesh Argal.

Pradeep Sangwan, the left-arm seamer who impressed in his debut Ranji Trophy season and at the U-19 World Cup, will represent the Delhi Daredevils, as will uncapped Tasmanian fast bowler Brett Geeves ($50,000).

Bangalore also signed up Bangladesh left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak ($50,000), New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor ($100,000) and Indian U-19 wicketkeeper Shreevats Goswami.

South African batsman Ashwell Prince was bought by the Mumbai Indians for $175,000, in addition to U-19 players in Saurabh Tiwary and Manish Pandey. Napoleon Einstein and Abhinav Mukund, two Tamil Nadu players from the U-19 World Cup, and Vidarbha’s Viraj Kadbe will represent the Chennai Super Kings.

‘Happy faces’ after the auction, says Jayawardene

Brydon Coverdale

	Your shout: Ricky Ponting says Andrew Symonds will be buying the drinks following his million-dollar day in the IPL auction © Getty Images

Ricky Ponting says he is disappointed he did not sell for more at Wednesday’s Indian Premier League (IPL) auction, where he was valued nearly US$1 million lower than Andrew Symonds. However, Ponting said there would be no friction in the Australian dressing room following the bidding war, during which he went to Kolkata for $400,000.

“I thought I might have been able to attract a little bit more than that,” Ponting said. “The fact I haven’t made a lot of runs over the last couple of weeks probably hasn’t helped much. But realistically we as Australian players probably won’t be able to take part in the first couple of years of the event anyway.”

Symonds, who Hyderabad purchased for $1.35m, has not had a strong CB Series either, while the in-form Brett Lee fetched $900,000. Ponting, Matthew Hayden ($375,000) and Michael Hussey (350,00) may have been under-valued, however Ponting said there would be nothing but light-hearted banter in the Australian camp.

“I’ll have a bit of a laugh and joke with everybody today,” he said. “I’ve already sent Symmo a few messages saying that any time I go out with him from now on it’s his shout, which is not always the case with Symmo either, he’s pretty much the first one to dodge a shout whenever he can.”

Both Australia and Sri Lanka must put the monstrous pay-cheques out of their minds while they keep pushing to win the CB Series, which continues with a clash between the two sides in Melbourne on Friday. Like Australia, there were some lofty price-tags placed on Sri Lanka players, notably Sanath Jayasuriya, who went to Mumbai for $975,000.

Mahela Jayawardene was sold to Mohali for $475,000 and he will be in familiar company, with Kumar Sangakkara also at the franchise which will be coached by Tom Moody, their former mentor of the national side. Jayawardene said there were “a few happy faces” after the auction.

“It’s good that it’s over now and we can concentrate [although] we were never that much focused on IPL,” Jayawardene said. “This is the start of a good event and it will probably be very successful. All the guys are very keen, it’ll be great.

“I had a chat to Tom last night, that’s about it. It was a good chat we had and he just sent a text saying welcome back. Both Kumar and myself, it will be good to work with him again. [But] IPL is in April, so we have got much more cricket ahead of us before IPL.”

At least Sri Lanka’s players should be free of other commitments at the time, whereas Australia have tours of Pakistan and West Indies that are complicating matters. Last week Ponting called for the IPL to be included in the Future Tours Programme to allow all players from all nations the chance to participate and he said it was now even more important the ICC considers the idea.

“I read a few things in the paper a couple of days after [I first said] that, some people sat back and had a bit of a laugh and joke at what I had to say,” he said. “I think everyone now understands that with the amount of money that’s been bandied around and spent over the last couple of days there is going to be some tough decisions to be made for international cricketers.

“If it doesn’t fit into an international programme then you could see lots and lots of very good Test and one-day players just giving it up and going and playing in the Twenty20 tournament.” However, it seems Ponting’s plea has fallen on deaf ears with the ICC announcing it would not squeeze the IPL into the existing international calendar.