$$$SOLD$$$

After months of controversy the Indian Premier League is back with a bang, is more bigger and with renewed vigour and greater transparency this year's IPL bidding process kicked off with familiar and professional auctioneer Richard Madley. The bidding was contested with great intensity and every rupee was spent with a calculated risk and strategy to get the team balance right. This IPL 4 auction warranted some surprises with addition of two new teams to the league as well as many teams like Kolkata Knight Riders, Kings XI Punjab and Deccan Chargers went for clean slate. The others had the financial muscle to pull out big players first and early in the day by bidding aggressively high on the players they wished for. The 10 franchises together bought 113 players at a whopping $63115000 (over 63 million dollars) if my math is correct. Lets have a look at few hits and misses from the bidding room in Bengalaru.

1. Gautam Gambhir sold to Kolkata Knight Riders for a record $2.4 million. He played last season for Delhi Daredevils and he has been in good form for India against Saffers in the recent series. However T20 is a different ball game and he should prove handy with his captaincy skills as well. He was first out of the hat on Day 1 and the franchises went all the way to get their man, eventually the Knights prevailed which I say is a very good buy.

2. Yusuf Pathan sold to Kolkata Knight Riders for $2.1 million. This was the 3rd name out and once again there was aggressive bidding from teams Banaglore, Pune and Kolkata for the most prized asset of T20 cricket. Kolkata won the challenge here as well and paid up solid amount to buy him. He will ofcourse prove to be worth the money he is being paid.

3. Rohit Sharma sold to Mumbai Indians for $2 million. Ohh this one was pulled of by my team Mumbai Indians. Hmm, not one of my wish list but neverthless an Indian player will always help in T20 and Rohit Sharma is a good one at. Hope he can prosper under Tendulkar's wings and set the stage on fire.

4. Dale Steyn goes to Deccan Chargers for $1.2 million. The best bowler in the world at the moment and for 1.2 million, he could be the best business made by Deccan Chargers, the team that won the 2nd IPL season. Again in my eyes this is a very good buy.

5. Saurabh Tiwary to Royal Challengers Bangalore for $1.6 million. Hmm, there was a bit of controversy surrounding this one as Preity Zinta raised the bid very late on the hammer. It was sighted late by Madley and a few sparks were let out from the Royal Challengers Banglore camp. Until the Jr. Mallya went up and cleared the air with the Punjab team. It was also sad for me to see Saurabh Tiwary go as he had played very well for Mumbai in last season.

That was Day 1 and names like Sourav Ganguly, Brian Lara (my 2nd favorite next to Sachin) and monster-hitter Chris Gayle missing out. Day 2 came up with some lesser known players at less base prices. And it was interesting to see how much the team owners knew about them as they set out for bidding process again. Most of the day went smoothly with many players being unsold and franchises waited for the other teams to pour some extra cash on fringe players.

6. Munaf Patel sold to Mumbai Indians for $700,000. Mumbai Indians were one of those that fell into trap of raising the bid price without much intention to buy and eventually had to pay price for it. It all started between Banglore and Delhi from base price of $200000, but Mrs. Ambani suddenly raised her bid at $450000 and Banglore continued their pursuit when they finally called off at $700k. Mumbai Indians team looked flummoxed and they bought Munaf Patel hesitantly in the team. Now thats the magic and unpredictability of an auction!

7. Dan Christian to Deccan Chargers for $900,000. Meanwhile Deccan Chargers were conservative, yet building a strong team with thoughtful approach and buying good players at a very good price. However,one such name cropped who I nor any from my friends or the people in the room had heard of - Dan Christian.Yes, the bidding went on and on for him between the Chargers and Chennai Super Kings. Chargers were laughed off at for their pursuit of Christian, who must have already started celebrating his 2011 Christmas.

8. Mohammad Kaif went to Royal Challengers Bangalore for $130,000. He was brought into auction action for 3rd time in the day when he went un-bid for two times. This time he was being called at $100k by Pune's owners and to everyone's surprise Banglore asked $110k. Pune's owner had given up before again bidding $120k. But Bengalaru's Vijay Mallya had the last laugh by buying him for $130k. And thus the auction of IPL Season 4,2011 came to an end.

9. But some huge players missed out on the jamboree that is IPL. Sourav Ganguly's playing career must now come to an end when he was not picked up by his home team Kolkata nor any other franchises as well thought he is worth to go for. Brian Lara who announced he could return for IPL but with less of player and more of mentor role, lessened the chances for himself. Because who wants a mentor, the auction is about players. Another player of massive impact Chris Gayle of West Indies who had recently scored a triple century against Sri Lanka in test series and 32 runs of 1 over in T20 against Australia, he's also the first centurion T20 World Cup. He will be sorely missed. And also missed will be England's Ashes heroes Ian Bell, Chris Tremlett, James Anderson, Tim Bresnan and Graemme Swann.

10. Two teams - Kings XI Punjab and Pune Warriors that were left with a purse in excess of a million dollars should feel that these unsold players could haunt them in their sleep if any of those have a good World Cup. Well something is seriously wrong with teams wearing Fly Emirates jersey. They are shy to spend money on transfers. Kings XI Punjab did an Arsenal act by saving almost 2mn dollars in their kitty.

Moral of the story is "However great a player you may be, you need to be playing active cricket."

All the best to Mumbai Indians for IPL 4 and hope players do well and get us the 1st trophy.