Cricket: McCullum in marquee group for IPL auction

Brendon McCullum has been named as one of 16 marquee cricketers to be auctioned first at the Indian Premier League auction next week in Bangalore. Photo / Getty Images.

Brendon McCullum has been named as one of 16 marquee cricketers to be auctioned first at the Indian Premier League auction next week in Bangalore.

McCullum, with a reserve price of 200 Indian lakh rupees [$388,000], joins names such as Michael Hussey, Kevin Pietersen and Jacques Kallis vying for what are reduced budgets ahead of this year's tournament. Franchises are also only able to pick nine rather than 11 overseas players in their reduced 27-man squads.

The marquee group has been split into two groups of eight. Virender Sehwag, Mahela Jayawardene, Mitchell Johnson, Murali Vijay, David Warner, George Bailey, Faf du Plessis, Dinesh Karthik, Zaheer Khan, Amit Mishra and Darren Sammy are the others included.
Elsewhere players have been divvied into specialist categories such as batsman, fast bowler, spinner, all-rounder and wicketkeeper.

Ross Taylor will be auctioned at the same reserve price as McCullum but in the second group which consists of top order batsmen.

Eighteen New Zealanders were originally on the 895-strong list. That list has been culled overnight to 514 players but four more New Zealanders have been added.

In addition to McCullum and Taylor, the other Kiwis in the order they face the gavel, are: Nathan McCullum, Martin Guptill, Luke Ronchi, Corey Anderson, Hamish Rutherford, James Franklin, Jimmy Neesham, Jesse Ryder, Tim Southee, Neil Broom, Colin Munro, Jacob Oram, Adam Milne, Grant Elliott, Mitchell McClenaghan, Matt Henry, Kyle Mills, Hamish Bennett, Ian Butler, Nick Beard.

Anderson, Mills, Nathan McCullum and Ryder are at a reserve of 100 lakh rupees [$194,000]; Guptill and Southee are at 50 lakh rupees [$97,000]. The majority are at 30 lakh rupees [$58,000].

There's optimism more New Zealanders might be selected due to the form of the current team and the fact New Zealanders Daniel Vettori (Bangalore), John Wright (Mumbai) and Stephen Fleming (Chennai) are coaches. Their respective captains are Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni who are playing this series.

McCullum continues shortly on 143 not out in New Zealand's 329 for four after the first day of the opening test against India at Eden Park.