Ravindra Jadeja, Mahela Jayawardene, Vinay Kumar and New Zealand's only successful player, Brendon McCullum, were the top picks in the initial round of the Indian Premier League auction on Saturday.
Indian Test star VVS Laxman was among the players to miss out, failing to find a bidder club.
There were only eight clubs present at the auction, with the late controversial pull out of sponsor Sahara India from franchise Pune Warriors seeing the side absent from the event.
Jadeja, who was expected to draw a tough round of bidding, was bought by Chennai Super Kings after the defending champions and Deccan Chargers bid the maximum purse of US$2million each. The MS Dhoni-led Super Kings side picked up the all-rounder due to a higher secret bid.
McCullum - who impressed last season with the now-defunct Kochi Tuskers Kerala - will return to his former club the Kolkata Knight Riders for US$900,000 after an intense round of bidding, which saw US$500,000 added onto his base price.
Jayawardene - McCullum's opening partner at Kochi - also fetched a good price with Delhi Daredevils paying US$1.4m for the Sri Lanka skipper.
Kumar also returned to his first team as the Royal Challengers Bangalore came up with a successful bid of US$1m.
RP Singh, the fastest to 50 wickets in the IPL, was bought by Mumbai Indians for US$650,000, while Sreesanth was picked up by the Rajasthan Royals for his base price of US$400,000 but VRV Singh, who was with the Kings XI Punjab, did not find any takers.
Among the other Indian players, Parthiv Patel was bought by Deccan Chargers for US$650,000 while expectedly, Laxman was unsold. Off-spinner Ramesh Powar returned to his former club Kings XI Punjab after their successful bid ofUS$160,000. He was also part of the Kochi team last season.
Australia's Brad Hodge was picked up by Rajasthan Royals for US$475,000, while Royal Challengers Bangalore paid US$220,000 for spinning great Muttiah Muralitharan.
Mumbai picked up the biggest bargain of the day when they bought swashbuckling opener Herschelle Gibbs for just US$50,000.
Among the other buys, Dinesh Chandimal was bought by Royals for US$50,000 while several notable players like James Anderson, Ian Bell, Graeme Swann, Matt Prior, Stuart Broad, Owais Shah, Mark Boucher, Tamim Iqbal did not interest the franchisees.
Australian veteran spinner Brad Hogg, who recently made a comeback to the national side for the two Twenty20 matches against India at age 40, was bought by Rajasthan Royals for US$180,000.
West Indian Sunil Narine, who impressed during the Champions League T20 for Trinidad and Tobago, was the biggest surprise of the day as the Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders bid heavily for his services, with the latter winning out at US$700,000.