It's off to India for Ryder, Mills

Jesse Ryder's topsy turvy life took another twist last night when he was snapped up by Bangalore on a two-year Indian Premier League contract worth more than $300,000 a year for the next two years.

The richly talented but wayward Wellington cricketer had a reserve price of US$100,000 but bidding between Bangalore and Chennai resulted in him securing US$160,000 for the April 10 to May 29 Twenty20 tournament in India.

Ryder watched the IPL auction with his agent Aaron Klee and was the 10th player to be sold. New Zealand teammate Kyle Mills was bought moments later for his reserve of US$150,000 by Mumbai but the remaining Kiwi James Franklin was passed in without securing a bid at his asking price of US$50,000.

Klee described the outcome for Ryder as "a great result".

"It was nerve racking. There were nine players bought before him so there were only seven or eight to go so we were sweating a fair bit and rubbing our foreheads.

"We are really happy because Bangalore is the franchise I've been working with since Christmas. They had expressed an interest and I'd talked to Ray Jennings [South Africa] their coach and he is a real tough taskmaster and I think he will be good for Jesse."

Ryder will know at least one familiar face at Bangalore, his great schoolfriend and New Zealand teammate Ross Taylor. Ryder's was Bangalore's second buy last night, the first being Englishman Kevin Pietersen, who was sold for US$1.55 million.

Klee indicated Ryder would be encouraged to buy a house with his money.

"I look after all the finances so we'll look after it carefully." Klee said.

"We won't be buying anything extravagant, we will probably buy a house and get some of those aspects of life locked away."

Ryder was not available for comment last night but Klee said there was no wild celebration involving alcohol.

"He's been clean since that incident last month. He's keeping to the plan."

Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff set an IPL auction record when they both went for US$1.55 million, though neither player will get that sum because they are only available for three weeks and payment is on a pro-rata basis.

Flintoff was snapped up by the Stephen Fleming coached Chennai Super Kings, which last year set the previous record of US$1.5m for Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

South African JP Duminy, who starred in his nation's recent successful tour of Australia, was the night's big winner being sold for US$950,000 to Mumbai, more than three times his reserve price.

The surprise package was South African cricketer Tyron Henderson, who was sold to Rajasthan for US$650,000, more than six times his base price, while England allrounder Ravi Bopara went for US$450,000 to King's XI Punjab.

IN THE MONEY

IPL Auction list (all US dollars):

Shaun Tait (Australia) $375,000 to Rajasthan

Andrew Flintoff (England) $1.55m to Chennai

JP Duminy (South Africa) $950,000 to Mumbai

Kevin Pietersen (England) $1.55m to Bangalore

Paul Collingwood (England) $275,000 to Delhi

Owais Shah (England) $275,000 to Delhi

Fidel Edwards (West Indies) $150,000 to Deccan

Ravi Bopara (England) $450,000 to Punjab

Tyron Henderson (South Africa) $650,000 to Rajasthan

Jesse Ryder (New Zealand $160,000 to Bangalore

Kyle Mills (New Zealand) $150,000 to Mumbai

Thilan Thushara (Sri Lanka) $140,000 to Chennai

Mashrafe Mortaza (Bangladesh) $600,000 to Kolkata

Dwayne Smith (West Indies) $100,000 to Deccan

Jerome Taylor (West Indies) $150,000 to Punjab

Mohammad Ashraful (Bangladesh) $75,000 to Mumbai

George Bailey (Australia) $50,000 to Chennai.
source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/dominionpost/4840036a6033.html