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ICC Cricket World Cup, 2014/15 news from ESPN Cricinfo.com

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Delhi Daredevils shell out $2m for Kevin Pietersen


NEW DELHI: Swashbuckling England batsmanKevin Pietersen is all set to join Delhi Daredevilsfor IPL 5. His services, which could be available for only about eight of the 16 league games, will cost $2 million, according to IPL sources. But the amount could not be officially confirmed. 

The Delhi team has been on the lookout for a middle-order batsman and has picked Pietersen in the third transfer of the IPL trading window for Season 5. 

In the 2011 auction, Deccan Chargers bought Pietersen for $650,000, but he was unavailable for the entire season due to injury. Of the $2 million, Pietersen will get $650,000 and a sizeable part of the balance of $1.35 million, with the rest going to Chargers. 

In the 2009 IPL auction, Pietersen was the highest-paid player ($1.55 million) along with former England teammate Andrew Flintoff. In 2011, Gautam Gambhir was the highest-paid cricketer with $2.4 million. 

This year, Mumbai Indians have bought Dinesh Karthik for $2.3 million from Kings XI Punjab. 

Pietersen said he was looking forward to the experience of playing alongside someone of the calibre of Virender Sehwag. "I'm looking forward to a wonderful time with the Delhi Daredevils. It will be a great experience to play in the same squad as Sehwag." 

In a press release, TA Sekar, head (cricket) of GMR Sports which owns the Delhi franchise, said: "Kevin's addition would strengthen the Delhi Daredevils squad this season. We are pleased to add Kevin to our line-up. He brings rich experience and an explosive quality to our batting and can be a more than a handy off-spinner as well. We are sure that Kevin will help us to be very competitive this season and the Delhi Daredevils fans will enjoy this addition."

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