Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen have become the most costly cricketers in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The English cricketers were picked up for $1.55m (£1.1m) each, Flintoff going to Chennai and Pietersen to Bangalore at the 2009 IPL auction in Goa.

The amounts will be paid as salary but will also be according to a ratio of the amount of games in which they play.

England's Ravi Bopara went to Kings XI Punjab for $450,000, while Owais Shah and Paul Collingwood joined Delhi.

Former England skipper Collingwood went for $275,000 while Shah was snapped up for $375,000.

They have signed two-year deals but will have to pay 10% of their share of their auction price to their counties for releasing them for the first part of the season.

The England and Wales Cricket Board will allow Pietersen, Flintoff and Collingwood to play for a maximum three weeks of the six-week IPL season. Bopara and Shah may get longer if they are not involved in the Test squad.

Meanwhile, Graham Napier is working out a deal with his club Essex to allow him to join the Mumbai Indians, while Dimitri Mascarenhas will get a second season at Rajasthan Royals.

There were no bidders for the other two England players in the auction, Sussex batsman Luke Wright and Nottinghamshire all-rounder Samit Patel.

They join a long list of unsold players, which includes Australian's Phil Jacques and Stuart Clark - both of whom are under an injury cloud.

The previous transfer record was set at the 2008 auction, when Chennai paid $1.5m (£1.04m) for India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Australia batsman Michael Clarke, who had a price tag of $1m (£686,345), pulled out of the auction on Thursday to give himself more rest and time with his family in preparation for a busy year which includes a Test series in South Africa, the Ashes series and the Twenty20 World Cup.

Bangalore's owner Vijay Mallya said he was prepared to pay more for Pietersen.

"It was a very worthwhile investment. Team balance was important and Kevin was certainly important in maintaining that balance," he said.

He also suggested that Pietersen may be a candidate for captaining the Royal Challengers.

"The captaincy slot is open, but a decision will be made after a discussion," he said. "Pietersen will be with us for three weeks and that is something we have to take into consideration."