The time has come for the much awaited IPL 5 which is soon to take place from April 4 to May 27 this year. As per the IPL governing body, this time the League will have 9 teams with the addition of Pune Warriors India (owned by the Sahara Group) last year. The good news is that IPL 5 allows its teams to enhance their size from thirty-thirty-three players and there would be also an increase in the quantity of international players from 10 to 11. Besides, the IPL 5 teams could also have the extra salary of nearly 2 million USD.

It’s to mention that the IPL governing body has stated that four domestic & two international players can stay back in the previous team. According to reports the leading cricketers for the 2012 IPL auction are Ravindra Jadeja, Brendon McCullum, Mahela Jayawardene and Muttiah Muralitharan. As per the IPL Council announcement, the 1st window for player trading took place from December 15, 2011- January 20, 2012. The good part about the window was that the trading was devoid of any financial cap.

The 2012 IPL auction was held on February 4, 2012 from 11 a.m. and it was broadcasted by Set Max, IPL’s official broadcaster. Last year, the IPL players with highest salary (post auction) were VVS Laxman, Sreesanth from India and England’s Graeme Swann with 400,000 USD. Other players with 300,000 USD were Mahela Jayawardene from Sri Lanka, Mitchell Johnson from Australia and England’s James Anderson. The uncapped & capped players securing 100,000 USD were Dwayne Smith, Ravi Rampaul, Denesh Ramdin, Adam Voges, Brad Hogg, James Faulkner, Simon Jones, Ray Price, Jacob Oram and many more.

The auction of IPL 2012 witnessed Ravidra Jadeja, the young all rounder from India, fetching the biggest bid of more than 2 million USD and is being signed by CSK (Chennai Super Kings). He was followed by Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lankan captain) who is taken by 1.4 m USD by Delhi Daredevils and Vinay Kumar (medium pacer from India) who is taken by 1m USD by Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Some of the other biggest buys were by Kolkata Knight Riders who took Brendon McCullum (New Zealand) by 900,000 USD & Sunil Narine (West Indies) for 700,000 USD.