IPL Auction 2011

The IPL Auction 2011 date is something that everyone has been waiting for, and keen to follow closely. It will go on for 2 days (Sat & Sun), involve 350 players for bidding, and the 10 franchises will be spending up to 75 million dollars for the players they would like to lay their hands on. IPL 4 will consist of 74 matches being played by 10 teams. Pune and Kochi are the 2 new additions in this year's competition.



This time's auction is even more interesting than last time's, for the simple reason that due to the IPL Auction 2011 rules, almost all players have been released by their respective franchises, and are up for bidding. So all the teams will have a brand new lineup, which should help injecting even more fun in this year's edition. Amongst the early important buys in this Indian Premier League were Rohit Sharma, Andrew Symonds and Harbhajan Singh (Mumbai Indians), Robin Uthappa, Angelo Mathews, Yuvraj Singh and Graeme Smith (Pune Warriors), Parthiv Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Sreesanth and VVS Laxman (Kochi), Rahul Dravid and Johan Botha (Rajasthan Royals), Irfan Pathan and David Warner (Delhi Daredevils), Gautam Gambhir and Brad Haddin (Kolkata Knight Riders), Saurabh Tiwary (Royal Challengers Bangalore), and JP Duminy and Shikhar Dhawan (Deccan Chargers). Well known players that still have not been sold are Saurav Ganguly, Herschelle Gibbs, Brian Lara, and Mark Boucher, to name a few.



The auction still has a couple of hours to go today and then there is the whole of Sunday. That is when we will get the complete lineup of all the 10 teams. So stay tuned to this space for the detailed list of the IPL Auction 2011 which will be effective from IPL 4.

President Says More Work Still Needed on U.S. Economy

President Obama noted yesterday that the bill that passed to raise the U.S. debt ceiling, and trim a big portion of future spending, is a good first step to ensuring the full recovery of the U.S. economy, but that more must still be done. For those unemployed or underwater on their mortgages this is, of course, a very obvious statement. Still, at least the thinking is going in the right direction here. The president also noted that he expects tax reform to come out of a new committee comprised of both Democrats and Republicans that was established by the new legislation and that he wants a "balance approach" that sees the "wealthy" pay more taxes to help reduce the deficit.

Obama did not mention that the bottom 48% of earners in the U.S. pay no taxes, and that the top 10% of earners paid 70% of all income taxes. It is disingenuous of the president not to admit that the wealthy are already paying their "fair share" – along with the share of about 50% of the entire nation – when they write their checks to Uncle Sam each year. But honesty is not one of the president’s virtues and, in that, he has plenty of company in Washington, DC.

Noted the president, "Both parties share power in Washington. And both parties need to take responsibility for improving this economy." This is, of course, in stark contrast to the first two years of Obama’s presidency, when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and the White House – at that point, it was Democrats’ responsibility to get the economy on track. They failed. But, of course, that is common knowledge to the masses who remain unemployed and for those who will have to wait a decade for their homes to be worth as much as their mortgage obligations. Maybe the latest showdown in DC will lead to some honesty and some real action in the future, but it’s not advisable to hold your breath waiting for that.