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350 players will go under the hammer in IPL auctions on Saturday and Sunday at Bangalore. All the 10 teams including the two new IPL teams Sahara Pune Warriors and Kochi will try to grab the players. Each team has been allotted a total of 9 million dollars for spending on the players auctions as well as uncapped domestic players. Chennai Superkings have retained M S Dhoni, M Vijay, Suresh Raina and Albie Morkel (South Africa) while Mumbai Indians have also retained all the four players Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh, Lasith Malinga (Sri Lanka) and Kieron Pollard (West Indies). So, these teams will effectively have only 4.5 million dollars left in their purse. Rajasthan Royals has retained Shane Warne (Australia) and Shane Watson (Australia) leaving them with USD 5.9 million available to spend. Delhi Daredevils and Royal Challengers Bangalore have retained only player in Virender Sehwag and Virat Kohli respectively enabling them to have a balance of 7.2 million dollars available. Deccan Chargers, Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab have not retained any players and will have the complete 9 million available for purchase alongwith the two new franchisees. Many new faces including cricketing legends such as Brian Lara would be available for purchase at the auction which will be conducted by professional auctioneer Richard Madley, from England, who has conducted each of the previous IPL player auctions too. However, a few players like Matthew Hayden, Glenn McGrath, Shane Bond and Anil Kumble who played previous editions of IPL has decided to give the auctions a miss due to personal reasons. The first round of auctions would be for the players with the highest base price of $400,000 followed by second round with players with base price of $300,000 and then with $200,000 and $100,000 base price and so on. The two day auction would start at 10 A.M. Indian time tomorrow and will be broadcast live on Set Max.

Players with base price of $400,000 are:

Adam Gilchrist, Brett Lee, Shaun Marsh, James Anderson, Kevin Pietersen, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, Luke Wright, Michael Yardy, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, Daniel Vettori, Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor, Graeme Smith, AB de Villiers, Mahela Jayawardene, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Brian Lara and Chris Gayle.

Players with base price of $300,000 are:

Yusuf Pathan, Zaheer Khan, VVS Laxman, Jacques Kallis, Muttiah Muralitharan, Andrew Symonds, Cameron White, David Hussey, Shaun Tait, Kumar Sangakkara, Angelo Mathews, Simon James Cook and Steven Davies.

Players with base price of $200,000 are:

Gautam Gambhir, Irfan Pathan, Ashish Nehra, Sreesanth, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, RP Singh, Robin Uthappa, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Murali Karthik, Pragyan Ojha, Shakib Al Hasan, Michael Hussey, James Hopes, Brad Haddin, Brad Hodge, Doug Bollinger, Callum Ferguson, Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle, David Warner, Steven Smith, Dirk Nannes, Paul Collingwood, Owais Shah, Matt Prior, Ravi Bopara, Eoin Morgan, Ryan Sidebottom, Jonathan Trott, Joe Denly, Ajmal Shahzad, Tim Bresnan, Kyle Mills, Jacob Oram, Herschelle Gibbs, Mark Boucher, J P Duminy, Johan Botha, Dale Steyn, Sanath Jayasuriya, Ajantha Mendis, Dwayne Bravo and Darren Stevens.

Some Prominent Players with base price of $100,000 are:

Tamim Iqbal, Mortaza, R Ashwin, Morne Morkel, Dwayne Smith, Chanderpaul, Sarwan, Vaas, Fernando, Tharanga, Maharoof, Morne Morkel, Charl Langeveldt, Ntini, Kemp, Wayne Parnell, Ryan McLaren, Nathan McCullum, Time Southee, Scott Styris, Surabh Tiwary, Pujara, Vinay Kumar, Shikhar Dhawan, Badrinath, Parthiv Patel, Amit Mishra, Ravindra Jadeja, Munaf Patel, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Ian Bell, Sajid Mahmood, Ben Hilfenhaus, Philip Hughes, Adam Voges, Simon Katich and Tim Paine.

To view the complete list of players with base prices and details check this pdf.

NOTE: Domestic Indian uncapped players are not in the auction as they will be be available only after the IPL instructs them later. The domestic players have been broken down in to three categories, depending on how much first-class cricket they have played. The lowest tier of players can sign for Rs 10 lakhs (US$21,500) per year, the middle tier for Rs 20 lakhs ($43,000) and the top tier – those who have played at least five seasons of Ranji Trophy – will be paid Rs 30 lakhs ($64,500) per year.

Former Australian Batsman Michael Bevan has been appointed as the new coach of Kings XI Punjab while his fellow countryman and former fast bowler Geoff Lawson has been appointed as the head coach of Kochi IPL team. Bevan replaces another Australian Tom Moody as the coach of the Kings XI team. Punjab finished at the bottom of the league last year and would hope a change of fortunes with the new coach. Kochi would hope that Lawson can provide them the required expertise and help them a mark in their first year itself at the Indian Premier League. Both the coaches are expected to be physically presented in the auction to be held in Bangalore on Saturday and Sunday.

I have been asked this question repeatedly by many of my website visitors, friends, relatives etc. as to where they can buy the IPL tickets online. So, I am writing a short post about the websites where you can officially purchase DLF IPL T20 Season 3 tickets.

There are three main websites to buy the IPL tickets online:

1. Ticket Genie: Ticket Genie is being used by the official IPL website, the franchisee websites etc. it seems.

2. Book My Show: BookMyShow is also selling IPL 3 tickets online and they are the most popular online booking website in India. So, you can expect the booking and whole system to be quite smooth as they have been in the booking business (especially movie booking) for several years now. In BookMyShow, they are providing both booking of stadium tickets as well as IPL in cinema tickets it seems. They are also selling IPL and teams merchandise on their website.

3. Kyazoonga: I am not sure if normal stadium tickets would be available in Kyazoonga but they selling IPL in cinemas tickets on their website.

So, If you want to watch live in the stadium, you can book the “Sabse Bada Ticket” using the above websites. Aapne Khareeda Kya?

IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi had promised that the third edition of the Indian Premier League would be bigger and better than the previous seasons and he seems to have left no stone unturned to fulfill his promises. The opening ceremony of IPL 3 will be a huge event and there would be a bunch of international celebrities and Bollywood stars performing in the gala event. Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone will dazzle the spectators at DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai with her scintillating performance. Amongst the performers in the IPL opening ceremony are Deepika, Internation R&B singer Akon, Ali Campbell of the British reggae band UB40, Björn Again and Lionel Ritchie. The performances in the opening ceremony is expected to start with Ali Campbell of the British reggae band UB40 singing the evergreen hit song “Can’t Help Falling In Love” which will be followed by Bjorn Again entertaining the audience Abba’s super hit Dancing Queen. This performance is promised to be spectacular with visual effects too. Then there will be a choreographed light show announcing Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone’s entry. Deepika and the forty dancers on stage with perform a medley of songs including I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas, Uff Teri Ada from Karthik Calling Karthik and Twist from Love Aaj Kal. This will be followed by performances from Lionel Ritchie and then Akon. The IPL opening ceremony would be grand and Bollywood stars, celebrities, cricketers, corporate biggies, politicians and several other eminent personalities are invited to the opening ceremony. After the opening ceremony, there would also be a post-match party cum fashion show at a posh hotel in Mumbai.

The opening ceremony would be telecast live on Set Max from 6 PM Indian Standard Time.