Rahane, Surya top draws

Top Mumbai players who earn in crores in the Indian Premier League were bought literally for peanuts by different franchises of the T20 Mumbai League in the first-ever players auction here on Saturday.

Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane and Shreyas Iyer earned in six figures as they chose to play to give the league a much needed boost since it is finally seeing the light of the day after a lot of hiccups.

Iconic players Rahane and Suryakumar Yadav received the highest bid of `7 lakh each, while Rohit Sharma, who will not be available till March 19 as he will be leading India in the T20 tri-series in Sri Lanka, got `6 lakhs followed by Shreyas Iyer at `5 lakhs. Shardul Thakur an icon player remained unsold in the first set as he is also part on Indian T20 team.

Mumbai North West got Mumbai Indians skipper Sharma as icon player. He went for an amount less than that of Suryakumar and Rahane. All six franchises had `35 lakh in their purse. Mumbai North West also secured Shubham Ranjane and Tushar Deshpande. Both are bowlers and got `3.6 lakh and `1.9 lakh, respectively.

Iyer, who was retained by Delhi Daredevils, was the first player to be sold on Saturday. He later found good company in veteran Pravin Tambe, who was icon player first but then went unsold but later was bought in first class category (`3.2 lakh) and Karsh Kothari (`2 lakh) at Mumbai North Central. Every team consists of one icon player and five first class players and will at least have a 16-player squad from the now emerging players and developmental players left in the fray..

India Under-19 World-Cup winning captain Prithvi Shaw joined Rahane for `2.8 lakh in Mumbai North. Shaw will play in Irani Cup and hence will not be available from March 12 to 18.

Dhaval Kulkarni fetched a base price of `1.5 lakh. The injured pacer is currently undergoing rehab and will be fully fit by March 17. Mumbai skipper Aditya Tare who is injured and is expected to take 2-3 weeks for recovery went unsold. Mumbai South Central secured the services of icon player Siddhesh Lad at Rs 4 lakhs. Aditya Dhumal joined Suryakumar Yadav at Mumbai North East for Rs 3 lakh.

The bidding war was ferocious for Shivam Dubey and Jay Bista who went to Mumbai South Central and Mumbai South at `5 lakh each, surging from base price of RS 1.5 lakh. Five teams went for Bista while four teams showed interest in Dubey.

Mumbai South also get into the act and got allrounder Abhishek Nayar and bowler Harmeet Singh on board. Rs 4 lakh for Nayar, who has also represented India. Harmeet, meanwhile, fetched Rs 2.6 lakh. Sachin Tendulkar is brand ambassador of the event.