Cricket: Bond snapped up by Knight Riders

Shane Bond. Photo / Getty Images

New Zealand bowler Shane Bond will play Twenty20 cricket for Kolkata in this year's Indian Premier League (IPL) beginning in March.

Bond was among the earlier players up for auction today, and the Cricinfo website reported that he reached the maximum price of US$750,000.

Both Kolkata and Deccan put in a bid at that price, and the auction then went to a silent tiebreaker.

Both franchises had five minutes to submit a second bid in Indian rupees.

The franchise with the higher bid in rupees won the player.

The tiebreaker sums were not disclosed.

Chennai, an early bidder for Bond, fell out of the race when bids reached US$630,000, at which stage Kolkata entered with a bid of US$640,000.

Bond, 34, announced his retirement from international cricket last month after suffering an abdominal tear in helping the Black Caps to a first test win over Pakistan in Dunedin.

Cricinfo reported that Jai Mehta, co-owner of Kolkata, said the franchise knew of his injuries.

"But he is not going to playing test cricket and we understand he is in good shape."

Former Indian Cricket League (ICL) "rebels" Bond and Lou Vincent and current internationals Grant Elliott and Nathan McCullum are the New Zealanders among the 51 players up for auction.

New Zealanders already signed to the IPL are Black Caps captain Daniel Vettori, Jacob Oram, Scott Styris, Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor, Jesse Ryder and Kyle Mills.

Today's auction, in which franchises bid for players based on annual salaries, will add new players to the existing international mix of those on existing multi-year contracts.

Early in the auction, West Indies' Kieron Pollard attracted intense bidding, and four franchises - Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata - contested the silent tiebreaker, with Mumbai winning.

- NZPA

* The IPL auction list

New Zealand: Grant Elliott, Lou Vincent, Shane Bond, Nathan McCullum.

Australia: Brad Haddin, Philip Hughes, Doug Bollinger, Ashley Noffke, Adam Voges, Luke Pomersbach, Clint McKay, Graham Manou, Ben Laughlin, Jason Krejza, Damien Martyn.

England: Tim Bresnan, Eoin Morgan, Robert Key, Anthony McGrath, Monty Panesar, Mark Ramprakash, Graeme Swann, Jonathan Trott.

Pakistan: Shahid Afridi, Misbah-ul-Haq, Umar Gul, Imran Nazir, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Mohammad Aamer, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal, Umar Akmal, Saeed Ajmal, Sohail Tanvir.

South Africa: Zander de Bruyn, Wayne Parnell, Tyron Henderson, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Rory Kleinveldt, Yusuf Abdulla, Vernon Philander, Johan van der Wath, Vaughn van Jaarsveld, Morne van Vyk, Justin Kemp.

Sri Lanka: Nuwan Kulasekara, Nuwan Zoysa, Upul Tharanga, Thissara Perera, Thilina Kandamby, Kaushalya Weeraratne, Chamara Welegedara, Chinthaka Jayasinghe, Chamara Silva.

West Indies: Kieron Pollard, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Daren Ganga, Lendl Simmons, Darren Bravo, Wavell Hinds, Kemar Roach, Sulieman Benn.

Zimbabwe: Murray Goodwin.

Bangladesh: Shakib Al Hasan.

Canada: Rizwan Cheema.

Netherlands: Ryan ten Doeschate.