Melbourne, Jan 11: Australian all-rounder Daniel Christian on Monday expressed his surprise at drawing USD 900,000 from the Deccan Chargers in the recently concluded IPL Player Auction.
Christian was the highest purchase in the opening session of Day 2 of Auction 2011 in Bangalore for the tournament beginning in April. The next biggest buy was made by Delhi Daredevils when they successfully bid USD 750,000 for domestic cricketer Umesh Yadav.
The Mumbai Indians picked up Munaf Patel for USD 700,000, while Venugopal Rao went to Delhi for the same price.
At a base price of just USD 50,000, Christian commanded a figure 18 times greater after the Chargers, Delhi Daredevils and new franchise Kochi entered into a bidding war for the 27-year-old.
Chargers coach Darren Lehmann, Kochi coach Geoff Lawson and Daredevils coach Greg Shipperd knew firsthand how deadly Christian can be with the bat.
"It'd be nice to earn those kind of figures in a full career. Its been a funny afternoon, to say the least," said Christian after hearing he had been signed by the Chargers for the astronomical sum.
"Compared to the other guys, I was just hoping to get picked up and play a part in [IPL], so to go for $900,000, words can't really describe it," he said.
"I've had a good few months in state cricket, and by the look of things, there's Deccan, Kochi and Delhi who were pretty keen to use my services," he said contentedly.
