England spinner Graeme Swann and Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene head a star cast of cricketers who will be auctioned on Saturday to join the Indian Premier League.
As many as 144 foreign and Indian players will be part of an auction restricted to players not already aligned
to any team in the money-spinning Twenty20 league.
Each of the nine franchises have a maximum of 2 million dollars to spend at the auction as they bid to strengthen their line-ups ahead of the fifth edition of the IPL which will be played between the 4th of April and the 27th of May.
Team insiders warn, however, that no more than 20-25 players are likely to be bought since only a few slots are up for grabs to fill the quota of 11 foreign stars in the 33-man squads allowed for each club.
No-less than 30 South Africans are on the auction list including four Chevrolet Warriors players in Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Nicky Boje, Jon Jon Smuts and Craig Thyssen.
