Sport: The week's best plays
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PT1M52S 620 349Steve Smith and James Faulkner have each secured million-dollar IPL deals to make up for the suspension of their IPL teams, but compatriot Shane Watson will have to enter the player auction to find a new home.
Smith, Faulkner and Watson were all caught up by the IPL's decision to suspend Rajasthan for the next two seasons of the IPL because of betting breaches by team officials. Chennai, the home of India one-day captain M.S. Dhoni, was also punished.
The IPL has created two new teams, Pune and Rajkot, to fill the void. The first step in those teams compiling playing lists came on Tuesday, when each was allowed to select five players who had been contracted to either Rajasthan or Chennai.
![James Faulkner is heading to new IPL team Rajkot.](https://web.archive.org/web/20151217105646im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/i/5/0/9/a/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gloc4u.png/1450173472534.jpg)
James Faulkner is heading to new IPL team Rajkot. Photo: Getty Images
The teams selected players in turn, at prices that began at 125 million rupees ($2.59 million) and progressively reduced to 40 million for the fifth player chosen by each team.
The first five players chosen were Indian – unsurprisingly, given their is a limit to the number of overseas players able to be selected in each team.
New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum was the first non-Indian player chosen, by Rajkot, for 75 million ($1.55 million).
Australia captain Smith and all-rounder Faulkner each went for 55 million ($1.14 million): Smith to Pune, Faulkner to Rajkot.
Teams are allowed to pay players as much as they want, however it is only the draft figure that counts towards the salary cap.
The draft rules ensured that if a player was taken in the for a price below their contract with either Rajasthan or Chennai, that their team was unable to honour, they would have been paid the difference, to ensure they were not disadvantaged.
Smith and Faulkner will be paid at least $1.14 million for the upcoming IPL season, assuming they are fit and available for all of it.
The last two players chosen in the draft were South Africa's Faf du Plessis and the West Indies' Dwayne Bravo. The South African was chosen before Watson despite still being subject to Test duty, unlike Watson who retired from first-class cricket after the Ashes.
Because Watson was overlooked it makes his imminent BBL stint for Sydney Thunder particularly important. He could also further his claims by excelling in Australia's one-day and Twenty20 series against India in January.
The player auction is on February 6.