THE GREAT CRICKET SALE: SEASON III

One thing is always common with anything happening in or around or regarding IPL – its unpredictability! The first IPL was as unpredictable as it could have been, the second was the shift to South Africa and the latest for the upcoming third season is – its player auction!

It was noon when Lalit Modi, at the Trident in Mumbai, initiated the proceedings. A zillion expectations were made for a certain players but everything was shattered as the Auction proceeded.

The player who fueled the most stories in news-houses was West Indian ‘Kieron Pollard’ who was sold for US$750,000+. His exact bid amount is unknown as he was finally bought by Mumbai Indians after a ‘Silent Tie-breaker’. Pollard’s base price was set $200,000 and was placed in pool A.  Kings XI Punjab started his bidding at base price, followed by Delhi Daredevils then Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians. His bid reached $400,000 when Chennai, Punjab and Mumbai were having a fight to get him in! Deccan too entered the ring with $550,000 and a bit later Kolkata knight riders thought they could prove themselves ‘Jokers’, if they didn’t bid, so they were in with $670,000. Chennai followed Mumbai with $750,000. This figure was highest for any player and time was for some tie-breaking! Four teams, Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore and KKR handed over their silent bids on a piece of paper to Lalit Modi and finally Mumbai emerged as the highest bidder! Though, these bids weren’t disclosed, sources claim that Kieron Pollard is now the costiliest player in IPL history as Mumbai Indians bought him in for $2.75mn. That’s very weird to ears but sources look quite confident with their claims!

Wayne Parnell of South Africa was bought by Delhi after a series of outbidding Deccan for $610,000. Parnell had a base price of $200,000. Then up for grabs was New Zealand speedster Shane Bond and one more silent tie-breaker was employed for him. Incidentally, Shane Bond’s base price was $100,000 and he was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders for $750,000+. Deccan Chargers was the opponent and again the original bid amount remained undisclosed. Next up was Kemar Roach of Windies, a complete surprise package. A tall fast bowler who recently troubled Ponting in Australia had a base price of $100,000. Deccan and Chennai involved in some serious tug-of-was for him and eventually Deccan finally got a player. Roach went out for $720,000, being one of the hottest bids! Seriously, bidding for Roach was like real hardcore business! Eventhough nothing stands common between the two, Deccan Chronicle (owners of Deccan Chargers) and India Cements (owners of Chennai Super Kings) as the former is a Media house and the latter a Cement manufacturing company except that both firms are based in Sourthen India, I, for a while, thought both had a traditional rivalry that they were maintaining at the IPL auction too!!!

Meanwhile, Shahid Afridi, Brad Haddin, Greame Swann and Mohd. Kaif remained unsold. Eoin Morgan, the English all-rounder was up for grabs next and was bought by Bangalore Royal Challengers for $220,000. He had a base-price of $200,000 and thus far was the bargain of the sale!

Furthermore, Daren Ganga, Shakib-al Hasan, Doug Bollinger, Sohail Tanvir, Tim Bresnan, Justin Kemp, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chamara Silva, Imran Nazir, Philip Hughes, Wavell Hinds, Lendl Simmons, Umar Akmal and Upul Tharanga remained unsold! Damien Martyn of Australia was next and was sold at his base price of $100,000. Jonathan Trott, Jason Krejza, van der Wath, Grant Elliott, Ashley Noffke, Rana Naved, Rory Klienveldt too remain unsold. Later Thisara Perara of Sri Lanka was bought by Chennai for $50,000.

Sulieman Benn and Tyron Henderson were last in round one and remained unsold. Then there were five slots available. Four teams had no money left. Chennai had one slot. Rajasthan had two. Deccan and Punjab too had one each. Modi's handed out slips to these teams for them to indicate which players they would like to be auctioned now. Chennai had recalled Kemp into the auction; Kemp went to Chennai at a base price of $100,000. Rajasthan wanted Adam Voges, they got him at a base price of $50,000. Punjab wanted Yusuf Abdulla, who played for them last season. He went to Punjab at base price.

Mohd. Kaif was the local player up for grabs and was available at $200,000. Punjab and Bangalore seemed interested and he thus went to Punjab for $250,000.

Finally the last part included three Indian U-19 players who are as of now playing for India in New Zealand at the U-19 World Cup. No auction was arranged and these had to pick through draft system. Bangalore picked Ashok Meenaria, the U-19 captain, Deccan took Harmeet Singh and Harshal Patel was bought by Mumbai. 

Hence, this concluded the auction process. Out of 13 slots available, 10 were filled!

The surprising part was the Pakistani players. No teams bid for any Pakistani players. One reason for this could have been the tussle between the Governments of India and Pakistan. But sources again had their say in this regard. According to them, a silent agreement was struck between all teams for not bidding the Pakistani players citing the tension between Governments of both countries.

Whatever it may be, the auction was once again filled with surprises and a bit of controversies!