TTCB – News

Ganga leads TT quartet for IPL auction
January 7, 2010

By ZAID MOHAMMED

TRINIDAD and Tobago cricket captain Daren Ganga is among eight West Indians who have been selected for the Indian Premier League Twenty20 auction later this month.

The 31-year-old Ganga is currently leading the TT team in the regional four-day tournament set to get underway in Jamaica on Friday.

Among those also making the cut on Wednesday were Ganga’s teammates wicket-keeper/batsman Lendl Simmons, hard-hitting allrounder Kieron Pollard and stylish left-handed batsman Darren Bravo.

The TT quartet caught the eye when the Calypso Warriors defied the odds in reaching the final of the Airtel Champions League Twenty 20 Championship late last year.

The other three West Indies with a chance of playing in the lucrative month and a half-long tournament which returns to India after being in staged in South Africa last year are Ramnaresh Sarwan, Kemar Roach, Sulieman Benn and Wavell Hinds.

Two other Caribbean stars--- Tino Best and Carlton Baugh who had their registration submitted by the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA) however were not fortunate to be selected in the final list of 51 players for the auction.

Several other West Indians have already secured contracts to play in the 2010 tournament including West Indies captain Chris Gayle, Fidel Edwards, Dwayne Bravo and Dwayne Smith.

Gayle, Bravo and Smith are currently participating in the Australian Twenty 20 club championships titled the Big Bash.

The auction list is dominated by Australia who have 11 players followed by South Africa with nine picks. West Indies and Sri Lanka both have eight players in the auction with seven coming from Pakistan whose cricketers did not play last season.

New Zealand have four players in the mix with one each from Bangladesh, Canada, The Netherlands and Zimbabwe.

Among the exciting stars bidding to compete in the richest Twenty 20 competition are Black Caps’ Nathan McCullum and Shane Bond; Clint McKay and Doug Bollinger of Australia; Chanaka Welegedera and Nuwan Zoysa of Sri Lanka; Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi and Umar Akmal; and Yusuf Abdulla and Rory Kleinveldt of South Africa.

The eight IPL franchises chopped 45 players from the initial list of 96 hopefuls and there has been no assurance or guarantee that the cricketers will be purchased during the auction.

For the 2010 IPL tournament from March 12 to April 25, organisers insist that they will deal directly with the players regarding contracts and not with their agents or managers.