Australian Vice-captain Michael Clarke was tipped as another hot property at the auction until he made himself unavailable for the lucrative Twenty20 tournament for the second consecutive season, citing his attempt manage the workload in view of the busy international calender.
IPL Governing Council has set the stakes far higher this year for the marquee players with Pietersen's base price being USD 1,350,000 and Flintoff attracting USD 1,000,000. Clarke was also tagged USD 1,000,000.
The benchmark was set in IPL's inaugural year in 2008 when, in a stunning steal in the first round itself, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) purchased current India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni for a staggering USD 1.5 million to set the tone for the rest of the high-profile proceedings held in Mumbai.
With most of the top cricketers already in the kitbag of the eight respective franchises, who also have a reduced amount of money in hand, this year's auction is expected to be a little less frenetic. Barring CSK, all the other franchises have an amount less than the cap of USD 2 million set by the IPL's Governing Council to spend at the auction, it was learned.
Mumbai Indians (MI) could be interested in the top cricketers but have to do with an available budget of USD 1.7 million to do their bidding.
The Sachin Tendulkar-led franchise had already spent USD 300,000 on West Indian all-rounder Dwayne Bravo and thus have only a reduced amount in their kitty for the auction.
MI have also swapped with Delhi Daredevils Asish Nehra for Shikhar Dhawan and with Bangalore's Royal Challengers Robin Uthappa for Zaheer Khan to bring in more balance to their team.
CSK and Punjab Kings Eleven seem to be interested in roping in Flintoff while Royal Challengers, who did not do well last season and finished seventh, are reportedly keen on picking up Pietersen to add meat to their batting.
No England cricketer was in the list of players during the February 20 auction in 2008.
The Englishmen available for auction this year are: Pietersen, Flintoff, Paul Collingwood (USD 250,000), Luke Wright (USD 150,000), Owais Shah (USD 150,000), Ravi Bopara (USD 150,000) and Samit Patel (100,000). A total of 15 Australians, highest from any country, are to be auctioned off. The list also includes well-known names like Stuart Clark (USD 250,000), Shaun Tait (USD 250,000) and Phil Jacques (USD 100,000).
Incidentally, no player from Pakistan is in the auction list.
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