Anderson sets high IPL reserve price
Corey Anderson is banking on his solid Indian Premier League record and the back surgery that fixed Shane Bond, after setting the highest reserve price of the New Zealand contingent for this month’s auction.
The power hitting allrounder hasn’t played a competitive match since July, and underwent surgery in September to repair a stress fracture with screws and titanium wire which was successful for Black Caps pace bowlers Bond, Matt Henry and Hamish Bennett.
Still, Anderson aimed high by setting his reserve at 2 crore rupees (NZ$434,000) for the January 27-28 auction in Bangalore, in the top group.
After his whirlwind 36-ball ODI century against West Indies on New Year’s Day 2014, Anderson fetched 4.5 crore (NZ$976,500) from Mumbai Indians at auction and in
27 IPL matches has 521 runs at an average of 27 and strike rate of 130.
Anderson’s former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum is also among that group which includes England allrounder Ben Stokes – who went for an IPL record 14.5 crore (NZ$3.15 million) to Rising Pune Supergiant last year – Australians Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Big Bash star Chris Lynn, and West Indies
Twenty20 legend Chris Gayle. Just 18 players were retained by their franchises, with all the New Zealanders back in the auction.
Organisers confirmed 30 New Zealanders had put their names forward among 282 overseas players, and chances are high that the Kiwi contingent could match the 11 who turned out last year when the IPL starts in April.
Black Caps captain Kane Williamson and bowler-of-the-moment Trent Boult each set their reserve at NZ$325,500.
Boult, coming off 5-17 in the rout of Pakistan on Saturday, is sure to fetch another big price after he went for 5 crore
(NZ$1.08m) to Kolkata Knight Riders a year ago.
In the next group with a reserve of NZ$217,000 are New Zealanders Tim Southee and Mitchell McClenaghan, the latter having forged an impressive IPL career with Mumbai Indians and opted out of his New Zealand Cricket contract last year to pursue a T20 career.
The names of the other New Zealand IPL hopefuls won’t be made public until the eight franchises scan the huge list of 1122 players to enter the auction.
Only the players that franchises show interest in will go under the hammer and their reserve prices will be revealed.