So who were the players that the franchises bid fiercely for? Mahendra Dhoni and Andrew Symonds, obviously, as their signing amounts of US$1.5m and US$1.35m respectively suggest. Lalit Modi said there was an intense bidding for the two. "Dhoni was bid across the table by every team, his went to every team. Symonds was bid pretty much all across too."

Modi also said he could not make out what was going through the minds of the bidders, and what their strategy was. "It all depends. Everybody is trying to build a team strategically. There are players whose price has gone up from a base price of US$100,000 to about US$475,000-US$500,000.

"Some players have gone surprisingly low, some have gone surprisingly very very high. The rationale is not for me to judge, it's for the team owners to judge."