MUMBAI, Feb 20: Franchise owners spent lavishly in a player auction on Wednesday for the new Indian Premier League (IPL), with India’s Mahendra Singh Dhoni topping bids on a day that demonstrated the enormous financial power of the Twenty20 competition.

Spending on players nearly touched US$42 million, following the $1.026 billion paid for the initial television rights and $723.6 million for franchise ownership.

Chennai trumped Mumbai in the race for India’s one-day captain Dhoni, with all team owners cheering the breaking of the $1 million mark as the southern Indian team landed him on a three-year contract worth $1.5 million per season.

Dhoni, currently in Australia for the tri-series, was relaxed about being the most sought player for the league which begins April 18.

“I heard about it from my manager soon after the bid was held. The sum seems to be good and I’m happy, but I was never in any sort of tension about it, nor was I losing sleep over it,” Dhoni was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times.

Australia all-rounder Andrew Symonds attracted the next highest price — $1.35 million from Hyderabad, more than five times his reserve price.

Mumbai, having bid strongly for Dhoni and Symonds without success, spent heavily to secure Sri Lanka’s 38-year-old opening batsman and former skipper Sanath Jayasuriya for $975,000 per year, while also landing India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh.

Kolkata’s team was the biggest spender with bids worth $6,117,500, while Jaipur doled out the least — $2,925,000.

India pace bowlers Ishant Sharma and Rudra Pratap Singh were the target of aggressive bids that saw Sharma fetch $950,000 from Kolkata.

Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan attracted a bid of $925,000 from Mohali, while South Africa’s Jacques Kallis was sold for US$900,000 to Bangalore.

Mohali’s owners were jubilant at landing Australia fast bowler Brett Lee for $900,000 with businessman Ness Wadia pumping his fist and hugging partner and Bollywood actress Preity Zinta.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting went to Kolkata, only modestly over his starting price. His arrival will make for a collection of strong leaders at Kolkata, which is to be coached by former Australia coach John Buchanan, and has India’s most successful Test captain Saurav Ganguly.

The structure of the bidding saw players auctioned off in groups — “marquee players’’, batsmen, bowlers, wicketkeepers, all-rounders — and produced some unusual results. Ponting, captain of the world’s best national team, will be paid some $275,000 per year less than Calcutta team-mate David Hussey, who is only on the fringe of the Australia setup.

There was the possibility of leadership friction at Jaipur, where former Australia legspin great Shane Warne will join South Africa captain Graeme Smith, with the pair having a history of strong verbal exchanges, on and off the field.

Australia’s retiring wicket-keeper/batsman Adam Gilchrist (Hyderabad) and Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan (Chennai) were among the six marquee players, of which Dhoni was the only one to finish in the top ten of bidding. The others marquee players were Warne, Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene (Mohali) and Pakistan paceman Shoaib Akhtar (Kolkata).

Five “icon” players were reserved from the auction — team captains Ganguly (Kolkata), Yuvraj Singh (Mohali), Sachin Tendulkar (Mumbai), Rahul Dravid (Bangalore) and Virender Sehwag (Delhi) — and guaranteed 15 percent more than the highest-paid player at their franchise.

The 15 percent premium meant Tendulkar would fetch US$1,121,250 per season — still short of Dhoni’s salary.

Australia batsman Mike Hussey and retired strike bowler Glenn McGrath were among the players who did not attract their reserve price and were relegated to a reserve pool for subsequent bidding, along with West Indies players Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul. They were all bought in the second round.

Two players — Pakistan’s Mohammad Yousuf and South African Ashwell Prince — were withdrawn from bidding.

Yousuf is fighting a legal battle against the rebel Indian Cricket League, which already secured his signing.

There were no England players available at auction, with its players committing to national team and county duty in an increasingly crowded cricket calendar.

Allocation of players from Wednesday’s auction (x-denotes ‘icon’ players exempt from auction, get 15 percent premium on highest team-mate):

Highest bids: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (India) Chennai $1.5 million; Andrew Symonds (Australia) Hyderabad $1.35 million; Sanath Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka) Mumbai $975,000; Ishant Sharma (India) Kolkata $950,000; Irfan Pathan (India) Mohali $925,000; Brett Lee (Australia) Mohali $900,000; Jacques Kallis (South Africa) Bangalore $900,000; R.P. Singh (India) Hyderabad $875,000; Harbhajan Singh (India) Mumbai $850,000; Chris Gayle (West Indies) Kolkata 800,000; Robin Uthappa (India) Mumbai $800,000.

Squads:

BANGALORE: x-Rahul Dravid (India) $1.035 million; Jacques Kallis (South Africa) $900,000; Anil Kumble (India) $500,000; Cameron White (Australia) $500,000; Zaheer Khan (Bangalore) $450,000; Mark Boucher (South Africa) $450,000; Nathan Bracken (Australia) $325,000; Dale Steyn (South Africa) $325,000; Shivnarine Chanderpaul (West Indies) $200,000; Wasim Jaffer (India) $150,000.