Smith is not worst IPL flop

Graeme Smith may be flopping in the Indian Premier League - his $500,000 price tag means his 42 runs in the tournament so far have come at more than R78,000 a run - but he's not the most overpriced player in the competition. Not by a long shot.

Smith, with a top score of 24 and an average of 10.50, has played in only four games for IPL rookies Pune Warriors, who splashed plenty of cash to piece together a team strong enough to compete.

The top run-scorer to date, as of Sunday, was Indian supremo Virender Sehwag, with 424 runs at R28,301 a run to justify his hefty $1.8-million (R12-million) price tag.

Compatriot Sachin Tendulkar, the second-highest run-scorer, has produced a value of R32,876 a run.

Jacques Kallis, however, has been a better investment financially, his R7,39-million contract reaping a return of R21,519 a run.

Even more profitable was Chris Gayle, who went unsold at the pre-season auction. The West Indian, who scored 37 runs off one over on Sunday, has clobbered 328 runs from five matches so far for a dividend of R8,129 on his reserve price of $400,000.

But Smith isn’t the worst on the list of lucrative non-performers. Cameron White, the carefree Australian batsman who was bought by Deccan Chargers for $1.1 million (R7.3 million), has totalled just 89 tournament runs - that's R82, 022 per run.

And Kings XI Punjab couldn’t have predicted that David Hussey, the violent Aussie master-blaster, would labour to only a 40-run tally for the tournament so far. They bought him for $1.4 million (R9.3 million) at a return of R232, 500 per run, making him the runaway leader in the flop purchase of the season.

Hussey managed only four runs in the match against Pune Warriors on Sunday, a game King XI Punjab lost by five wickets. Kings XI are certainly ruing the wasteful expenditure as they sit at the bottom of the log.

Of the bowlers, fiery Sreesanth is another high profile underperformer, with his four scalps coming at R1.5-million per wicket.

Kolkata Knight Riders got the services of Brett Lee for a cool $400,000 (R2.6 million) but the Aussie veteran has rewarded his team with just three wickets in eight games - a return of R866, 666 a wicket.

Spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan has only picked up two wickets in four games for Kochi Tuskers Kerala, which works out to R3.65-million a wicket off his purchase price of $1.1 million (R7.3 million). Not cool.

Sri Lanka's Lasith Malinga is the top wicket-taker with 24 victims so far, which means his $500,000 cost turned out to be a great bargain at just less than R140,000 a wicket.

Rohit Sharma is second on the wicket table with 13 wickets. But with his investment costing $2-million (R13.35-million), his wickets have come at just more than R1-million apiece.

Injury ruled out two players who would’ve been crucial for their teams had they been fit, Kevin Pietersen for the Deccan Chargers and Ashish Nehra of Pune Warriors. The Chargers paid $650,000 for Pietersen and the Warriors $850,000 for Nehra and neither have touched bat or ball in the tournament so far.

IPL batsmen

Chris Gayle - R8,129 per run

Jacques Kallis - R21,519

Virender Sehwag - R28,301

Sachin Tendulkar - R32,876

Graeme Smith - R78,571

Cameron White - R82, 022

David Hussey - R232, 500

IPL bowlers

Muttiah Muralitharan - R3.65-million per wicket

Sreesanth - R1.5-million

Rohit Sharma - R1m

Brett Lee - R866, 666

Lasith Malinga - R140,000