Jacob Oram could soon have a few hundred thousand reasons to celebrate. Photo / Greg Bowker
Check out all the action in today's one-dayer from Napier with nzherald.co.nz's Live Scoring, from 11am. Our reporter Edward Gay will also be blogging from the ground.
What price Brendon McCullum or Kumar Sangakkara? Jacob Oram or Jacques Kallis?
These questions and many others will be answered when cricket's first international player auction is staged in Mumbai tonight.
Eight franchises will bid in a once-only tender process for the services of some of the game's
biggest names ahead of the inaugural Indian Premier League, a 44-day Twenty20 competition starting on April 18.
Specifics remain shrouded in mist to match a New Delhi dawn but among the more fascinating elements for the players will be how highly they are valued against their peers.
Players were given a choice of a flat fee guarantee, or a smaller guarantee but the chance to top it up if they prove appealing to the franchises. Most of the New Zealand quintet of McCullum, Oram, Daniel Vettori, Stephen Fleming and Scott Styris took the punt on picking up extra money at the auction.
The franchises - based in Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, New Delhi, Chennai, Mohali and Jaipur - have a salary cap of US$5 million ($6.3 million) but must fork out a minimum US$3.3 million.
Squads must include eight overseas players from a pool of 85, four local catchment players, four under-22 Indians and no more than two Australians. Total prize money is US$5 million; the winners get US$2 million.
So who do you aim for? Specialists or allrounders? Big name veterans or promising young players who are fleet-footed in the field?
Vettori, the world's top ranked ODI bowler, should fetch plenty of interest and he thinks Oram "who could be one of the top three Twenty20 players in the world" would be a good buy.
