It's all about money honey!!

Millions spent in one single day. Players sold, players bought. And in unbelievable prices - they are enormous figures, especially for a common man like me. It has altered the very own face of how Cricket is played, who controls the game and what drives the passion. Cricketers are celebrities now - literally in every sense. Glamor, money and fans - they have it all. With Indian Premiere League, Cricket sure has taken a turn - right or wrong, only time will tell. Here is a list collected from cricinfo.com demonstrating at how much some of the players were auctioned (!!) to play at the IPL for different teams. For more details on the bidding, please visit: http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/ipl/content/current/story/338107.html

Top ten players at the auction (Figures in USD)

Player	Franchise	Base price	Winning bid
Mahendra Singh Dhoni	Chennai	400,000	1,500,000
Andrew Symonds	Hyderabad	250,000	1,350,000
Sanath Jayasuriya	Mumbai	250,000	975,000
Ishant Sharma	Kolkata	150,000	950,000
Irfan Pathan	Mohali	200,000	925,000
Jacques Kallis	Bangalore	225,000	900,000
Brett Lee	Mohali	300,000	900,000
RP Singh	Hyderabad	200,000	875,000
Harbhajan Singh	Mumbai	250,000	850,000
Robin Uthappa	Mumbai	200,000	800,000

Icon players

Player	Franchise	Price
Sachin Tendulkar	Mumbai	1,121,250
Sourav Ganguly	Kolkata	1,092,500
Yuvraj Singh	Mohali	1,063,750
Rahul Dravid	Bangalore	1,035,000
Virender Sehwag	Delhi	833,750

Look at the figures. Are you kidding me?

The love of the game and one legend

During the ongoing India-Australia series, one placard at the SCG read "Commit all your crimes when Sachin is batting. They will go unnoticed because even the Lord is watching." Arguably, the greatest passion in India must be Cricket. An old saying, which has almost become a cliche in India, goes "Cricket is religion, Sachin is god". Cricket is the talk of the street, it is the center of gossip for Indian youth. The whole country turns into a bunch of cricket experts during any cricket series featuring the home team. News channels can create hour-long programmes even on the hair-cut of cricketers. The fans swing between two extremes; one day - if you are national cricketer and you failed miserably in a series - your effigies could be burnt, your house could be stoned; on the very next sunny day - if you score some runs or take some wickets; all forgotten, all excused - well, you could be the national hero too. Cricket is not just a sport in India, much beyond that. One may argue Cricket is a media-created hype that has grasped the youth, one may argue cricket has made other sports insipid in the country. But if you are cricket lover, and it's a cricket season - who cares - it's excitement time, it's time for celebration in win, it's time for desperation in loss. Cricket runs in the blood of India today.
And one man; no ordinary man, one great, one legend, one true human - who has made Cricket so popular, so exciting for every Indian is Mr. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. The name itself is enough to get incitement running through your spine. Oh !! what a player, and most importantly what a human being !! Untiring contribution to Indian national team - stylish, elegant, fearless yet humble, soft-spoken, dignified. He has been nightmare for every bowler in every cricket playing nation, yet every cricketer - doesn't matter where he hails from - has a respect for this little fella. People get tied to their seats to see this genius architect building yet another splendid cricket innings. He competes with himself, he tries to excel himself. We leap everytime he sent a dancing ball out of the fence, we weep everytime he has to walk back to the pavilion. He controls the emotions of billions watching him. Yes dear, Lord must be watching him play ... and criminals too !!!