While some like Ravindra Jadeja or Vinay Kumar might have joined the million dollar bandwagon, others were not that lucky. The IPL 2012 auction that remained the cheapest of all the IPL auctions saw as many as five English cricketers going unsold.
As many as 136 foreign cricketers were up for sale at the IPL-V auction that took place at Bangalore on 5th February, 2012. Of these 136 cricketers of foreign origin, 5 were from England. Englishmen James Anderson, Graeme Swann, Matt Prior, Ravi Bopara and Ian Bell did not find any takers from any of the 8 participating IPL franchises.
But this does not mean that there would not be any players from England taking part in the fifth edition of the Indian Premier League. Cricketer Kevin Pietersen would be seen playing for Delhi Daredevils, Eoin Morgan would play for the Kolkata Knight Riders while Stuart Broad would be seen playing for Kings XI Punjab. Their transfer took place in the earlier editions of IPL and they were not up for auction this time.
The one player who seemed to be the most disappointed is James Anderson who hoped to use his IPL stint as a ladder to claim his spot back into England’s Twenty20 side. While the players might feel disappointed with the outcome of the IPL 2012 auctions, this news brought wide smiles on the faces of the managers of the England Cricket Team. The English cricket officials see this as a chance to provide enough rest to the English players before they resume their cricketing action against West Indies at Lord’s on May 17.
The cricketers of England always failed to generate enough interest. Kevin Pietersen saw a reduction of his price tag to $650,000. Stuart Broad was sold to Kings XI Punjab for $400,000 while Eoin Morgan would play for KKR for $350,000.