If Hilton Towers in Mumbai were to be Paris’s Musee de Louvre, then Mahendra Singh Dhoni was undoubtedly the Mona Lisa. The tranquility of an art exhibition may have been missing, but Wedesnday’s great cricket bazaar had no oils on display either.Instead, there was drama — the one ingredient that’s most identified with Indian cricket. The country’s financial brains had paraded their most fierce lieutenants to get the job done. What followed was an intense seven-hour bidding process that caught the imagination of the cricket world and beyond like never before.And the verdict was clear. Corporate India had turned its back on the stars from around the world, instead spending their millions on the young Twenty20 champions.The big spendersA total of 78 cricketers from India and the other Test-playing nations — the best in the business — were profiled. And once the buyers began writing the cheques, it was clear that few auction houses across the world would have matched their magnanimity.The moment the public screen flashed the profile of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the eight franchises, who had been waiting to bid for the dashing wicket-keeper-batsman, kicked off in style. The auction began at a reserve (base) price of Rs 1.6 crore and all bidders — at increments of Rs 20 lakh at first and later at Rs 40 lakh. It went on until Team Chennai — owned by India Cements — got hold of the player. Dhoni will play for Chennai and he’s cost them a whopping Rs 6 crore. The fact that Dhoni happens to be among the country’s top-five brand ambassadors is the only explanation for the kind of money that has been spent. After Shah Rukh Khan and Akshay Kumar, the Jharkhand player tops the list of country’s most sought-after brand icons and with crores riding on him in the advertising industry, the result wasn’t all that surprising. “He is the captain of India’s Twenty20 world champion team,” IPL commissioner Lalit Modi said as a matter of fact, explaining the demand for Dhoni.No comparisonIn comparison, the likes of Adam Gilchrist, Kumara Sangakkara, Sanath Jayasuriya, Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting paled. Among this lot, Jayasuriya — bagged by Mumbai — earned $975,000.Following Dhoni was Andrew Symonds. The Sydney fiasco, allegations of abuse and the hate-campaign notwithstanding, Symonds was bought by Team Hyderabad for a staggering Rs 5.4 crore.Symonds managed to beat Harbhajan Singh more than anybody else, climbing the charts as far as his abilities as cricketers and even popularity as a player were concerned. Harbhajan, who went to Mumbai for Rs 3.4 crore, seemed a bit over-priced towards the end.And for football fans (sort of interested in cricket), there’s going to be a transfer window around the same time next year.
