Indian Premier League 6

• Michael Hussey – Chennai Super Kings
• Ricky Ponting – Kolkata Knight Riders
• Jerome Taylor – Kings XI Punjab
• Shoaib Akhtar – Kolkata Knight Riders
• Misbah-ul-Haq – Bangalore Royal Challengers
• Shahid Afridi – Deccan Chargers
• Shoaib Malik – Delhi Daredevils
• Mohammad Asif – Delhi Daredevils
• Umar Gul – Kolkata Knight Riders
• Mohammad Hafeez – Kolkata Knight Riders
• Salman Butt – Kolkata Knight Riders
• Kamran Akmal – Rajasthan Royals
• Younis Khan – Rajasthan Royals
• Sohail Tanvir – Rajasthan Royals
• Shaun Tait – Rajasthan Royals
• Shane Watson – Rajasthan Royals

[edit] Player auction

The player auction was held on 6 February 2009 in Goa, India. There was a two-million dollar cap for teams buying at the auction. The following acquisitions were made: ^[21]

Player	Franchise	Price (USD)
Shah, Owais  Owais Shah	Delhi Daredevils	275,000
Collingwood, Paul  Paul Collingwood	Delhi Daredevils	275,000
Edwards, Fidel Fidel Edwards	Deccan Chargers	150,000
Smith, Dwayne  Dwayne Smith	Deccan Chargers	100,000
Pietersen, Kevin  Kevin Pietersen	Bangalore Royal Challengers	1,550,000
Ryder, Jesse  Jesse Ryder	Bangalore Royal Challengers	160,000
Henderson, Tyron  Tyron Henderson	Rajasthan Royals	650,000
Tait, Shaun  Shaun Tait	Rajasthan Royals	375,000
Flintoff, Andrew  Andrew Flintoff	Chennai Super Kings	1,550,000
Thushara, Thilan  Thilan Thushara	Chennai Super Kings	140,000
Bailey, George  George Bailey	Chennai Super Kings	50,000
Duminy, JP  JP Duminy	Mumbai Indians	950,000
Mills, Kyle  Kyle Mills	Mumbai Indians	150,000
Mohammad Ashraful	Mumbai Indians	75,000
Bopara, Ravi  Ravi Bopara	Kings XI Punjab	450,000
Taylor, Jerome  Jerome Taylor	Kings XI Punjab	150,000
Mashrafe Mortaza	Kolkata Knight Riders	600,000

[edit] Build-up

Kevin Pietersen was signed for a record 1.55 million USD by Bangalore Royal Challengers and made captain of the team

The media build-up to the second season of the IPL was largely centred around security concerns, but another focus was Kolkata Knight Riders' coach John Buchanan's radical four-captain plan, which was created to utilize the knowledge of Sourav Ganguly, Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum and Brad Hodge together as captains. The plan met its fair share of criticism and approval^{[citation needed]}, with critics claiming the plan would lead to too much conflict of opinion on the field while supporters claimed that Twenty20 is suited to such radical ideas. Adding to Knight Riders' woe was the break out of the fake IPL blogger scandal.
Much of the other hype around the IPL was the impact of the new-look Bangalore Royal Challengers with their new captain Kevin Pietersen. Bangalore team owner Vijay Mallya, disappointed with the team's 7th place performance last season and its categorization as a test team^{[citation needed]}, sought radical changes and signed Pietersen for a record 1.55 million USD contract before making him captain of the side (replacing Rahul Dravid who captained last season as the icon player of the Royal Challengers). The Challengers also acquired hard-hitting batsmen Robin Uthappa, Ross Taylor and Jesse Ryder.
Some of the other topics of discussion were the potential benefit teams with a large number of South African players, like the Challengers, could gain from local knowledge of the conditions^{[citation needed]}. There was also some concern about how teams like Kings XI Punjab could deal with the mass exodus of some of its core unit during the series due to international duty and how teams would deal with the loss of Pakistani players who in some cases (eg. Sohail Tanvir with the Rajasthan Royals) played a large part in their teams' fortunes last season^{[citation needed]}.