South African players with IPL contracts

It’s IPL time, well, not really. It’s World Cup time first and it’s the IPL’s time to try and steal its thunder. This year the annual cricket cattle market kicked off with people splashing their cash like they own Manchester United.

Some people are being silly and crying foul with some of the purchases, it’s okay, there is a conspiracy theorist in all of us.

Anyway, we’d much rather take a look at which Saffas got snapped up and how much sense can be made from these purchases:

Deccan Chargers:

Dale Steyn for $1.2-million. Nice pay day for Steynie, the bad news is that he now has to live up to that price tag…disappoint like some others have done in the past and this Deccan Chargers fan will never forgive you.

JP Duminy for $300 000 – absolute bargain, especially after his overpriced buy in the first auction.

Rusty Theron $85 000 – a steal! Rusty’s death bowling will be key to the Charges. Smart buy.

Kevin Pietersen for $600 000 a big pay cut for the T20 World Cup player of the tourney…but his ego needed this. I wonder if he’ll block me on Twitter yet? I will be sucking it up and supporting him after all.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

AB de Villiers for $1.1-million. For that price tag, we hope he’ll be singing ahead of every game.

Charl Langeveldt for $140 000.

Johannes van der Wath for $50 000 and a whole bunch of banned substances.

Rilee Rossouw for $20 000. Could be a bargain….if he manages a place in the starting XI.

Jonathan Vandiar for $20 000…who? Just kidding…

No point in rattling off about all these blokes, half of them might struggle to get game time and it could be that RCB went for them as ‘bargain back ups’.

Kolkata Knight Riders:

Jacques Kallis for $1.1-million and a two-year sponsorship with Advanced Hair Studio. We’re kidding about the last bit but that’s a fair price for Kallis. Even if he doesn’t really perform, the money KKR will make from his appearance fees will more than make up for it. Shah Ruhk Khan likes a man with good hair, so Kallis was a natural choice, we’re just not sure how good he’ll look in purple….

Rajasthan Royals:

Johan Botha for $950 000. A straight skipper swap  for Rajasthan…what’s with that?

Pune:

Graeme Smith for $500 000, that’s a good buy for the new franchise. Although, after Smithy was chastised by some Indian supporters during the Test series, we’re not sure how liked he is at the moment.

Wayne Parnell for $160 000 – great buy, probably one of Pune’s best buys.

Alfonso Thomas for $100 000…errr….

Delhi Daredevils:

Morne Morkel for $475 000 if he doesn’t bowl any wides or no balls (which he actually hasn’t for a while) Morkel, based on his current Test form, could be great buy.

Colin Ingram for $100 000. Arrived on the scene in shining armour, whether that armour will keep on shining is another story. He already needs a bit of polish after Sunday’s T20.

Roelof van der Merwe for $50 000. If Roela doesn’t spend all his time in India drinking Brandy & Coke he could play a vital role for Delhi. Not so much with his bowling, but more with that close-my-eyes-swing-the-bat-and-I-hope-I-can-hit-it-fucking-far strategy.

Robert Frylinck for $20 000 – with a name like that, you bet he’ll do well.

Mumbai Indians:

Davy Jacobs for $190 000 – that’s a steal. Jacobs was one of the most exciting players of the Champions League t20, held in South Africa last year, and if he can adjust to Indian conditions the prospective opening duo of Jacobs and Sachin Tendulkar is mouthwatering.

Chennai Super Kings:

Albie Morkel (retained),

Faf du Plessis for $120 000. Lots of noise being made about Faf….but we’ll keep our mouths tightly shut until we see how he performs….in Indian conditions