(A collection of blog posts from February 6, 2009 originally posted separately. Times are Sydney timezone, GMT+11. - RE, 19.3.13)
Part 1: 4.48pm
It's meat market day today at the Great Southern Regional Cattle Saleyards in Western Australia. We'll have reports when available, but meanwhile the cattle sales have begun at the Great Northern Saleyard in Goa.
And we've already had a record price for two prize bulls. Andrew Flintoff has been bought by the Chennai Super Kings for $US 1.55 million, while that other great Englishman, Kevin Pietersen, has been snavelled by the Bangalore Royal Challengers, also for $1.55 million.
Other round one purchases at the cattleyard so far include Shaun Tait (Rajasthan Royals, $275K) and Jean-Paul Duminy (Mumbai Indians, $950K).
Live blogging of the beeffest at cricketnext.com.
(And real-time chat on the cattle sales here.)
Part 2: 7.03pm
Some news from Thursday's Wodonga cattle sales. "Stock and Land" newspaper reports that the heat wave kept prices down.
Offering a smaller than advertised yarding of 1,430 head, a distinct lack of northern orders was a feature of the sale. This resulted in a soft steer market of 150- 175c/kg lwt. Heifers fetched 140- 160c/kg lwt.
Sales of breeding females, however, emerged as satisfactory on the day, with pregnancy-tested cows selling from $660- $810. Cows with young calves at foot made to $970. (Watch the video if you think I'm making this up.)
Meanwhile, today in Goa, cricketers picked up by IPL franchises in Round Two were Fidel Edwards (Deccan Chargers, $150K), Owais Shah (Delhi Daredevils, $275K) and Paul Collingwood MBE (Delhi Daredevils, $275K). Brad Haddin, Stuart Clark, and Chamara Kapugedara were passed in at this stage.
Part 3: 7.38pm
Dammit. I look for some livestock to bid for on eBay and the first thing I strike is some tickets for a sold-out Taylor Swift concert...
Round Three at Goa. The most productive round in terms of the number of players acquired, though no big names claimed now... available slots and available money drying up.
Tyron Henderson (Rajasthan, $650K), Ravi Bopara (Punjab, $450K), Thilan Thusara (Chennai, $140K), Jesse Ryder (Bangalore, $160K), Kyle Mills (Mumbai, $150K). Ashwell Prince was unwanted as usual, but to be fair, he has had his share of injury problems recently. Also passed in at Round Three: Phil Jaques, Andre Nel, Luke Wright and Nuwan Kulasekara.
Part 4: 8.53pm
Round Four saw only one purchase - Dwayne Smith by the Deccan Chargers for $100,000. No takers for the World's Best ODI Allrounder, Shakib Al Hasan. Nor for Samit Patel, Morne Wan Vyk, Jerome Taylor, Ashley Noffke, Mohammad Ashraful, Gulam Bodi and Darren Powell, while NSW's Steven Smith must be wondering what is going on after Dave Warner and Moises Henriques were chosen in the preliminary draft in December, and he missed out completely.
No takers at all in Round Five: Tamim Iqbal, Bryce McCain, James Franklin, Aiden Blizard, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Michael Klinger, Kaushalya Weeraratne, Prasanna Jayawardene, Dominic Thornely.
Round Six, and KKR bought Mashrafe bin Mortaza for $600,000 while CSK picked up George Bailey for just 50 thousand US smackers. It's a wonderful life for some, not for Yusuf Abdulla, Daniel Harris, Kemar Roach, Aaron Bird, Michael Dighton, Michael Hill and Brett Geeves.
At the end of the livestock sales, Punjab and Mumbai had one slot left for an overseas player. The Kings XI plucked Jerome Taylor out of the remainder bin for $150K, while the Indians took Mohammad Ashraful for $75K.
There's still the question of how to fill the vacancies of the Pakistani players summarily dispatched on political grounds. That will be an issue on another day.