The Indian Premier League Player Auction garnered a lot of publicity not only because India is a cricket-obsessed nation but also because of the presence of Bollywood stars like Shahrukh Khan and Preity Zinta.

In Wednesday’s auction for players, SRK bagged Shoaib Akhthar for $425,000 (Rs 1.7 crore), Ricky Ponting for $400,000 (Rs 1.6 crore) and Chris Gayle for $800,000 (Rs 3.2 crore).Preity claimed Mahela Jayawardene for $475,000 (Rs 1.9 crore), S Sreesanth for $ 625,000 (Rs 2.5 crore) and Brett Lee for $900,000 (Rs 3.6 crore)

It was, in the words of Shahrukh Khan, ‘the beginning of an attempt to spark a sports culture in India’.“I keep reading at times that this is a money-making preposition, which hopefully it will be,” Khan, who owns the Kolkata team, told a packed media conference after the end of the auction.