Mitchell Johnson and David Warner topped a list of Australian cricketers set to clean up financially after being sold on the first day of the IPL auction on Wednesday night.
Johnson made the most of his recent demolition of England in this summer’s Ashes series and will earn $1.15 million for his upcoming IPL stint.
The 32-year-old was the highest plucked Aussie in the opening rounds after being claimed by the Kings XI Punjab on a night where some 512 cricketers vied for an IPL spot.
Not far behind Johnson were Glenn Maxwell, also purchased by Punjab for $1.06 million, and Test opener David Warner, who will pocket $889,000 with the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Mike Hussey ($889,000), Steve Smith ($710,000) and Aaron Finch ($710,000) were the other Australians in the next tier of highly paid stars.
Also selected on bigger dollar deals were George Bailey ($577,000), Brad Hodge ($426,000) and Shaun Marsh ($390,000).
David Hussey and Matthew Wade went unsold on day one, but could still be picked up by an IPL side in tomorrow’s round of auctioning.
Indians Yuvraj Singh and keeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik absolutely cleaned up, sold for $2.48 million and $2.22 million respectively.
Kevin Pietersen probably wasn’t feeling too bad about being dumped from the English side when he was purchased by Delhi for a cool $1.6 million.
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