Miserly Jaipur penalised

While the required amount was 3.3 million dollars, Jaipur spent a shade over 2.9 million dollars on eight players.According to a senior official of the IPL Governing Council, the Jaipur franchise has been asked to deposit the difference between the minimum of 3.3 million dollars and the amount they have spent at the auction.The difference can also be deducted from the amount that the IPL will pay the teams, the official said, ''But this could have been their strategy to save their money for purchases outside the pool.'' On the other hand, five teams - Mohali, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Kolkata - have crossed the maximum limit of five million dollars set for the auction. IPL rules state that if a player is either completely unavailable or only available for less than four of the matches in 2008, 25 per cent of the bid for that player in the auction will count against the five million dollar purse.

Mostly, the centrally-contracted Australian cricketers slot in this category and the figures spent for the players who are not available will be modified accordingly.