BENGALURU, India (CMC) – Exiled West Indies batsman Darren Bravo is on his way to the lucrative Indian Premier League after landing a contract with Kolkata Knight Riders in the auction held here Monday.
The 28-year-old left-hander, locked in an impasse with the West Indies Cricket Board after being controversially sent home ahead of the West Indies campaign in the Tri-Nations Series against Sri Lanka and hosts Zimbabwe last November, was picked up in the third round by KKR for US$74 000 – the same base price at which he entered the draft.
KKR are owned by the same interests who recently purchased Trinbago Knight Riders – the Port of Spain-based Caribbean Premier League franchise for whom Bravo currently campaigns.
Bravo was joined by rising West Indies star Rovman Powell who was also snapped up by KKR for US$44,000, and fellow Trinidadian Nicholas Pooran who signed with Mumbai Indians for $44,000.
Discarded two-time Twenty20 World Cup-winning captain Darren Sammy will make a return to the IPL after missing out last season, and will turn out for Kings XI Punjab on a contract worth US$44,000.
The quartet were the only new players from the Caribbean to secure contracts in the IPL, the most popular T20 tournament on the international schedule.
The auction also saw Barbados-born England all-rounder Chris Jordan picked up by Sunrisers Hyderabad for US$74,000.
West Indies Test and one-day captain Jason Holder, along with Andre Fletcher, Johnson Charles, Marlon Samuels, Evin Lewis and Shane Dowrich all went unpurchased.
The IPL runs from April 5 to May 21.