I note that the recent stupid media speculation that Kevin Pietersen, allowing for the fact that no Test Match commitments would impinge upon his IPL availability, would command a fee of circa £3 million in the auction for the IPL has been well and truly shown up for the rubbish that speculation was as in the IPL player auction at Bangalore, he was bought by the Delhi Daredevils for £880,000, a mere 29% of the speculated media figure...
That's because the British media don't know how the IPL pay deals work, combined with probably botching the conversion of currencies from INR to USD and then to GBP. When a player is signed for a figure (for example Shakib Al Hasan from Bangladesh, a bargain at $466,000) but has restricted availability, the actual amount paid is based on the portion of the tournament where they are available to the team.
Even if there was a currency mixup, $3,000,000 (30% of the salary cap) would have been way too high for any non-Indian player (especially Pietersen, he only got half that) let alone £3,000,000 which would have been too much for anybody. He doesn't have the marketing appeal to be worth 30% of the salary cap.
It's interesting to note that Pietersen has been retained by the same team
but for less than his his 2012-2013 price! Had the demise of his international career been known a month ago, Delhi would have retained him at $2,000,000 before the 10 January player retention deadline. As it turned out, they were able to get him for 'just' $1,500,000 by waiting for him to be sold at the auction and then using one of their 'right to match' cards allowing teams to get back a 2013 player at their new 2014 auction price.
It's not a coincidence that the IPL auction takes place a week after the conclusion of the Big Bash League, and therefore a particularly notable performance in the BBL has a much bigger influence on non-Indian players' chances at the IPL auction than other non-IPL T20 competitions. In the case of the English flat track slogger Alex Hales, his performance for the Adelaide Strikers was notable because it was a load of crap - and he consequently went unsold despite being #1 on the ICC's T20 batting rankings at the start of the summer. He might get a go in the second round where unsold players can be re-auctioned without a base price.
To see Brett Lee and Shaun Tait both going unsold on the first day despite medium-level base prices is a big surprise. Both have been highly prized every year since the IPL started as they provide a supreme combination of on-field talent and absolute top shelf value for marketing.
