England all rounder Dimitri Mascarenhas on Tuesday became the first player from his country to become eligible to play in the Cricket Board-promoted Indian Premier League when he was bought at the second players' auction by the Jaipur team for $ 100,000.
No England player was available to the eight franchise owners who splurged millions of dollars to buy top international players contracted to the IPL at the first players' auction held last month.
"Mascarenhas approached us and we told him to get an NOC from his home board. Since he's not a contracted English player with the ECB, he got permission of the Hampshire county. I also spoke to the ECB chairman and he was cleared for the auction," said IPL Chairman and Commissioner Lalit Modi.
"We will follow the same procedure for other England players too if and when they are available," Modi explained at the end of the second auction in which 14 overseas players went under the hammer.
Australian all rounder James Hopes, who was a member of the squad that lost to India in the best of three triangular series finals and kept the hosts in the hunt till the end in the closely fought second finals at Brisbane on March 4, fetched the highest prize of $ 300,000 and was bought by the Mohali team owned by Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia.
Fourteen members of the under-19 World Cup-winning team were also sold to the franchises through a "draft" procedure.
