17 WI players land lucrative IPL contracts

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Several West Indies stars including Andre Russell, Nicholas Pooran, Jason Holder and Shimron Hetmyer have landed million dollar contracts for this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) which bowls off in April.

On the opening day of the mega auction last week, all-rounder Andre Russell sits at the top of the table with $1.6 million (Kolkata Knight Riders) contract followed by white-ball captain Nicholas Pooran, who attracted the second highest bid of US$1.433 million by Sunrises Hyderabad, Jason Holder, a former Test captain and one of the world’s leading allrounders, was bought by new franchise Lucknow Super Giants for US$1.166 million while Hetymer, an attacking left-hander, was picked up by Rajasthan Royals for US$1,133 million.

West Indies’ captain Jason Holder celebrates the dismissal of England’s captain Joe Root during day two of the first cricket Test match at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019.Associated Press / Ricardo Mazalan/File

Guyana and West Indies fast bowler Romario Sheppard joined the million-dollar club after he was picked up by Sunrisers Hyderabad for US$1.033 million.

Among the other West Indian players to find franchises were fast bowler Odean Smith, batsmen Rovman Powell, Evin Lewis, and Kyle Mayers, fast bowlers Alzarri Joseph, Dominic Drakes and Obed McCoy, along with left-arm spinning allrounder Fabien Allen, also landing lucrative contacts. Their contracts range from US$100,000 to US$800,000.

Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell and Dwayne Bravo, were all retained by their respective franchises ahead of the auction.

The total price paid for the West Indies players was US$10,855 million.

The 17 West Indians make up the largest number of foreign players in the IPL, from any territory outside of India.