Afridi and Gayle fetch highest BPL prices ESPNcricinfo staff
January 19, 2012
Pakistan's Shahid Afridi outdid West Indies batsman Chris Gayle, who is widely considered the most valuable Twenty20 player in the world, by fetching the biggest price at inaugural Bangladesh Premier League auction in Dhaka. Afridi was snapped by Dhaka Gladiators for US $700,000 a little after Gayle, whose international career has been stalled by a long-running dispute with the WICB, went for $551,000 to the Barisal Burners.
West Indies cricketers fared well at the auction, with Marlon Samuels getting a $360,000 bid from Duronto Rajshahi, and Kieron Pollard picking up a $300,000 deal with Gladiators. Allrounders Dwayne Bravo and Shoaib Malik were bought for $150,000 each.
Seventeen foreign players were put on auction with a base price of $100,000 including former Sri Lankan bowlers Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas, the New Zealand allrounder Scott Styris and Zimbabwe captain Brendan Taylor. Stuart MacGill, who has come back from retirement to play the Big Bash League, was one of 36 players auctioned at a base price of $50,000.
The BPL will be contested by six franchises that were bought for prices ranging between $1.01 million and $1.2 million, with SQ Sports picking up Chittagong for the highest value during the franchise auction on January 10.
It's just a matter of time that after his big pay day he will come out and will speak on behalf of all Pakistani cricketers and will claim sonething on the lines of that "hum Pakistani aik khuood daar aur gheyrat valli qoum hain, humain IPL ki koi zaroorat nahin"
A sense of national duty prevailed over money as flamboyant all-rounder Shahid Afridi, after hitting the jackpot at the auction for the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), confirmed that he will miss the Twenty20 tournament and instead turn out for Pakistan against England.
Afridi was sold to the Dhaka franchise for $700,000 – the highest bid for any player in the auction – and would have featured in the tournament to be played from February 9 to 28. However, Afridi, the first choice for all the bidders, expressed his unavailability for the Bangladesh league.
‘I won’t take part in the BPL,” Afridi told The Express Tribune from Australia where the all-rounder is taking part in the Big Bash League.
“It’s clashing with the limited-overs series against England in the UAE and that’s my focus. My preference has always been my national team and I’m looking forward to giving my best against England.”
The experienced cricketer, however, felt honoured to have been sold for the highest amount, adding that he was ‘happy that I’ve been chosen above many famed cricketers’.
Afridi also confirmed that he will not be taking pat in the earlier matches which do not clash with Pakistan’s schedule.
“I’ll utilise those days for training. I can only think about playing in the league when I don’t have national commitments.”
