Mumbai, Feb 20: Indian players outshone their rivals from around the world, with Robin Uthappa being picked up by Mumbai for an astronomical sum of $8,00,000.

Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni attracted the highest price of $1.5 million (euro1.02 million) in the first round of bidding on Wednesday for players in the Indian Premier League. Not far behind Uthappa, was Rohit Sharma, whose base price was $1,50,000, being picked up by Team Hyderabad for a sum of $6,50,000, while ODI opener Gautam Gambhir was picked up by his home team Delhi for $7,25,000. Another player Manoj Tewary also got a huge price from his base price of $1,00,000 going for $6,75,000 to Team Delhi. Suresh Raina, another young and upcoming batsman, also fetched a huge sum of $6,50,000 from Team Chennai, while team Jaipur made a winning bid of $6,75,000 for Mohammad Kaif. Anil Kumble whose base price was $250,000 was bought by Bangalore for $500,000. Harbhajan Singh with $250,000 as base price was bought by Mumbai for $850,000.

David Hussey, younger brother of Australia star Michael Hussey was brought by Team Kolkata for a price of $6,25,000, while Hyderabad who named V V S Laxman as the captain of their team, was brought for $350,000. Hyderabad also brought Sri Lankan batsman Chamara Silva for his base price of $1,00,000, while India Test opener Wasim Jaffer was sold for his base price of $1,50,000 to Bangalore.

West Indian Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnaraine Chanderpaul, Australians Simon Katich and Justin Langer and South Africans Ashwell Prince and Loots Bosman went unsold and were kept in the reserve list.

India's comeback man Irfan Pathan's recent performances in Australia seem to have made an impact with the eight franchisees of the DLF Indian Premier League fetching nearly a million dollar before Team Mohali finally landing him for $925000.

India discard Ajit Agarkar was brought by Kolkata who shelled out a sum of $350000 for him, while Sri Lankan Tillakratne Dilshan was sold for $250000 to team Delhi. Dilshan's teammate Fervez Maharoof was also snapped up by Delhi for $225000.

India's Twenty20 World Cup star Joginder Sharma was snapped up by Chennai for $225000, while Hyderabad picked up New Zealander Scott Styris for a low price of $175000.

Upto the end of the sixth round, the teams had spend the following amount of the $5 million cap which is there on their spending. The list is at follows: Chennai: $4 million; Mohali: $4 million; Bangalore: $3.8 million; Mumbai: $3.5 million; Delhi: $3.2 million; Kolkata: $2.5 million; Hyderabad: $2.3 million; Jaipur: $1.7 million.



UNI