The inaugural Icelandic Cricket Association player auction took place today, and was televised worldwide by the European Cricket Network. Under the hammer wielded by ECN’s anchorman Vinny Sandhu, the four domestic teams spent their 70.000 krónur purse on between 14 and 16 players.
The top price was won by Derick Deonarain, who was bought by Hafnarfjördur for 19.000 krónur. Sadun Lankathilaka was next in line, as Reykjavík shelled out 18.000 krónur to retain his services; Kópavogur stumped up the same amount to keep Jegadeesh Subramaniam. Then came two players at 17.000 krónur: Ramachandran Gujapan, who went to Vesturbær, and Chamley Fernando, who joined Deonarain in moving from Reykjavik to Hafnarfjörður.
Three players went unsold: Khan Gul, Mustak Shaikh and Dimitrios Tsikas. They will be assigned teams at a later date.
The squads will now muster and prepare for the Volcanic Ashes, the traditional winter competition. The event should go ahead as planned, since the Icelandic Government announced that sporting activities could resume next week.
The top bids
19.000 kr. Derick Deonarain (Hafnarfjörður)
18.000 kr. Sadun Lankathilaka (Reykjavík)
Jegadeesh Subramaniam (Kópavogur)
17.000 kr. Chamley Fernando (Hafnarfjörður)
Ramachandran Gujapan (Vesturbær)
14.000 kr. Sebastiaan Dreyer (Vesturbær)
12.000 kr. Prabhath Weerasooriya (Reykjavík)
10.000 kr. Javed Khan (Hafnarfjörður)
Reykjavík squad
Joining (7): Dushan Bandara (captain) (Kóp), Ben Boorman (new), Arun Cheerankavil (Kóp), Pradip De (Kóp), Vinoth Kalaiazhagan (new), Omar Safi Khan (Haf), Sathiya Rupan (Kóp).
Retained (8): Lakmal Amaratunga, Asim Ayoub, Lakmal Bandara (owner), Mahinda Dissanayake, Sadun Lankathilaka, Ravi Rawat, Max Sandaru, Prabhath Weerasooriya
Leaving (8): Derick Deonarain (Haf), Chamley Fernando (Haf), Agha Khan (Haf), Javed Khan (Haf), Lal Mahagoda (Kóp), Kathir Narayanan (Ves), Junaid Raja (Haf), Jegadeesh Subramaniyam (Kóp).
Kópavogur squad
Joining (10): David Abew-Baidoo (Haf), Riaan Dreyer (Haf), Vikram Kadan (new), Lal Mahagoda (Rvk), Rajesh Paul (new), Abdur Rehman (Haf), Jakob Robertson (Haf), Uthaya Rupan (new), Jegadeesh Subramaniyam (Rvk), Nolan Williams (Haf).
Retained (4): Ólafur Briem, Abhi Chauhan (owner), David Cook (captain), Bala Kamallakharan.
Leaving (13): Dushan Bandara (Rvk), Lakshitha Bimsara (Ves), Keenan Botha (retired), Arun Cheerankavil (Rvk), Leslie Dcunha (Haf), Pradip De (Rvk), Sebastiaan Dreyer (Ves), Ramachandran Gujapan (Ves), Mohit Kotian (Ves), Anantha Krishnan (Ves), Gabriel Maksimov (retired), Sampath Nagarajan (Ves), Sathiya Rupan (Rvk).
Hafnarfjörður squad
Joining (8): Leslie Dcunha (Kóp), Derick Deonarain (Rvk), Saruna Dumbris (new), Chamley Fernando (Rvk), Agha Khan (Rvk), Javed Khan (Rvk), Tariq Muhmood (new), Junaid Raja (Rvk).
Retained (6): Samuel Gill (captain), Javed Hussain, Sulaman Nawaz, Kali Nazar, Fida Wur, Mohammad Younas (owner).
Leaving (10): David Abew-Baidoo (Kóp), Ali Cheema (released), Riaan Dreyer (Kóp), Ihtisham-ul-Haq (retired), Omar Safi Khan (Rvk), Lee Nelson (Ves), Abdur Rehman (Kóp), Jakob Robertson (Kóp), Khurram Shehzad (released), Nolan Williams (Kóp).
Vesturbær squad
Joining (16): Lakshitha Bimsara (Kóp), Abhijit Butti (new), Sebastiaan Dreyer (Kóp), Avik Ghosh (new), Ramachandran Gujapan (Kóp), Sreejith Jayabhavan (new), Kuldeep Jha (new), Mohit Kotian (Kóp), Anantha Krishnan (Kóp), Rishabh Mishra (new), Sampath Nagarajan (captain) (Kóp), Kathir Narayanan (owner) (Rvk), Ramji Navapara (new), Lee Nelson (Haf), Mahendra Suthar (new), Sunil Tandra (new).