The Black Caps fast bowler Shane Bond says he wasn't expecting to be the centre of a million dollar bidding battle in the Indian Premier League player auction.
Bond's availability for the lucrative Twenty20 competiion has been enhanced by his decision last month to retire from test cricket.
The Deccan Chargers and Kolkata Knight Riders led the bidding before tke Knight Riders prevailed.
Bond -- who missed two years of international cricket afrter signing for the rebel ICL -- says he's in good shape to make the most of the IPL's pro-rata payments.
He says he's plying for his club omn Satursday and isn't too far away from turning out for Canterbry.
He's hoping to play for New Zealand at the Twenty20 World Cup in March but isn;t expecting to miss many IPL games.
Bidding for Bond started at $135,000 with the West Indies all rounder Keiron Pollard only other player to top one million dollars.
But the other New Zealanders in the auction, Lou Vincent, Grant Elliott and Nathan McCullum. missed out.
So did all the Pakistani players, although Pakistan are the world champions in the shortest form of the game and most of the winning team was up for auction.
