Bond the big winner at IPL auction 

Source: PhotosportBlack Caps fast bowler Shane Bond

Salary caps, silent tiebreakers and Lotto draws for anonymous local Under-19 cricketers. If there's one thing that sustains the level of interest in Indian Premier League auctions, it's the administrators' freedom to make the rules up as they go.

Even so, this year's instalment of cricket's great meat auction was a comparatively low-key affair, with most of world cricket's big guns already signed up and tightened purses limiting the top cash price to US$750,000.

Only 11 of the 66 players to go under the hammer attracted bids; and amongst them only a handful could be considered household names.

And with all due respect to some of the auction's lesser lights, it's hard to fathom why potential bargains like Ramnaresh Sarwan and our very own Lou Vincent went unsold, or why some franchises left vast amounts of cash in the bank while arguably the game's biggest drawcard - Shahid Afridi - failed to secure even an opening bid.

What did catch the eye this time around is that, after two years of splashing cash on big-hitting batsmen and all-rounders, most teams opted to bolster their bowling attacks with strike bowlers.

Born-again Shane Bond, South African up-and-comer Wayne Parnell and the West Indian pair of Kemar Roach and Kieron Pollard were the only players to attract bids of more than $250,000. Pollard aside, all are out and out pacemen.

While last year's tournament was played out on green, tacky late-autumn wickets in South Africa, this year sees a return to the flat, batting decks of the sub-continent, where pace and accuracy are essential weapons against aggressive batting.

The clamour for Bond - who has played one Test and a handful of limited-overs matches in the past two years - is the most telling indication that an ability to bewilder batsman and shatter stumps is both as marketable and as valuable to a team as "six appeal".

It completes a remarkable reverse in fortunes for Bond, who a year ago was marooned in the rebel Indian Cricket League, looking unlikely ever to feature for club and country again. Now, with his focus still on the 2011 World Cup, he has the chance to do both.

At the other end of the scale to Bond is South African paceman Tyron Henderson, who has been deemed surplus to requirements by the same Rajasthan outfit that splashed out $650,000 on him last year.

The other main talking point, the non-selection of any players from current Twenty20 champions Pakistan, probably comes as little surprise to antipodean fans who witnessed their recent execrable Test performances first hand.

Among them, Afridi stands out as the auction's highest-profile casualty. 40% of Cricinfo respondents tipped the all-rounder to draw the highest bid; and given his popularity there would be little surprise if IPL supremo Lalit Modi managed to find a team for him before the tournament resumes in March.

Elsewhere, there was little else in the way of purchases to set the pulses racing.

Kyle Mills' Punjab outfit did a good bit of business by snapping up Yusuf Abdulla - who excelled as a late replacement for them in last year's tournament - on the cheap. "English" batsman Eoin Morgan's $220,000 sale to Bangalore was described as a "steal" by Modi himself, but the Irishman will struggle to dislodge Ross Taylor from his top order slot there.

Inaugural champions Rajasthan continued their habit of making shrewd rather than lavish acquisitions, snapping up limited over specialist Adam Voges and veteran Damien Martyn for a combined $150,000. A hard-hitting batsman, handy part-time slow bowler and exceptional fielder, Voges could prove one of the bargain buys of the tournament.

The most disappointed franchise will be Chennai, who dropped out of bidding wars for Pollard, Bond and Roach, only to be left with a pair of relatively-anonymous all-rounders in South African Justin Kemp and Sri Lankan Thissara Perera.

Bond and New Zealand teammate Brendon McCullum will have their work cut out resurrecting a Kolkata side that finished dead last in 2009, but with a pay packet of around $50,000, it's a challenge he's probably willing to take on.

IPL: Where they went and for how much click here