Levi bags maiden IPL contract; Dinda and Hopes to play for Warriors

The man with fastest T20I hundred backs up an IPL contract after he went unsold in the recently concluded players’ auction IPL -5. South African batsman, Richard Levi was signed up by Mumbai Indians as a replacement player for Andrew Symonds who recently announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. Bagging his maiden IPL contract, Levi was excited to share the dressing room with Sachin and said,

I have heard from friends that Mumbai Indians is like an extended family where the team shares a great bond and trusts youngsters. Sachin Tendulkar has been my childhood hero and it would be exciting to share the dressing room with him.

In an another deal, the price of which is undisclosed, Sahara Pune Warriors have bought Ashok Dinda and James Hopes from Delhi Daredevils. However, Pune’s Mitchel Marsh has been ruled out of this year’s edition due to a low back injury. Earlier, Jamaican Marvon Samuels was signed by Pune Warriors. Samuels was approached both by Mumbai Indians and Pune Warriors. However he ended up signing a contract with Warriors. He said,

Sachin is my definitely my hero but I already gave Ganguly my word. I know that Sachin will respect my decision. If he had approached me first, I would have definitely played with him.Ganguly’s team pulled out of the auction. But we still kept in touch and he was telling me that they need to fix a few things and pick me up as soon as everything is fixed. So said, so done.

Earlier on 4th of this month, players’ auction was held. Players like Ravindra Jadeja, Mahela Jayawardene and Vinay Kumar attracted huge money from franchisers and bagged a million dollar deal each. They were bought for $2, $1.4 and $1 respectively. Overall 25 players were bought in the player auction. 3 players including Chris Gayle were retained and 5 players including Kevin Pietersen were transfered from one franchise to another franchise in the Player Transfer window.