IPL teams splurged liberally on Indian cricketers in the auction for season four. This represents a smart, if extravagant, move on the part of high-profile franchises in the cricket world’s biggest T-20 league. Wiser by the experience of the inaugural auction held three years ago, when money was showered on international stars regardless
of their availability, the state of their fitness and their levels of commitment to a start-up professional league, IPL teams decided to concentrate on the Indian cricketer who, thanks to the BCCI window for the IPL, are available for all matches. This also validates the national pride generated by our cricketers who are ranked not only No. 1 in the ICC Test rankings but are also early favourites for the World Cup to be held in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh from next month.
In their bid to change their entire player set-up, which saw them finish near the bottom in the first three editions, Kolkata Knight Riders may have gone overboard in raising the base prices of national stars. The advent of two new teams in Pune and Kochi made the auction even more vibrant. While the top of the list of the most expensive picks is populated solely by Indians, of whom Gautam Gambhir, seen as the future face of Indian cricket and prospective captain in all forms of the game, hit the jackpot at $2.4 million, the commitment shown by the top Sri Lankans, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, has been recognised. Gone is the time when the (joint) highest paid cricketer of the league, Andrew Flintoff of England, could be a virtual passenger in his team Chennai Super Kings’ victory march, taking IPL money without having to sweat for it on the field.
Some egos were dismantled, none more so than in the emotive case of Sourav Ganguly in whom his home state team, KKR, showed no interest. Pragmatism scotched the remnants of ambition in Brian Lara whose move to play IPL was seen as driven by greed by some of his Caribbean colleagues. Even a winning captain like Adam Gilchrist, previously of Deccan Chargers, had to go elsewhere, which only goes to show that age is something sporting geniuses cannot overcome for too long. A few players with known negative behaviour patterns have also been left by the wayside. The IPL and Champions League winners Chennai Super Kings strategised to retain the core of their winning combination towards which they pre-signed four payers while considerably limiting their war chest. Mumbai Indians, IPL runners-up, also took the same route without showing the same commitment to buying others through the auction route. Whether any advantage was derived by CSK in having the managing director of the owning company, India Cements, sitting in a conflict-of-interest situation as the BCCI secretary and president-elect, is not known. However, since the rules were the same for all and set before the auction there could be no real complaints although other problems, like salary “rorts (whereby players are paid more than the agreed sum)”, do exist.
Having taken a huge image dent engendered by the circumstances in which the flamboyant IPL architect, Lalit Modi, left his brainchild after the IPL-3 final, the league is set to reinvent itself in its fourth season. The financial health of the very popular professional league, with its exotic blend of sport and entertainment, has generated confidence and new self-belief in Indian cricket, which can only increase now that a distinct Indian flavour has been given to it. Notwithstanding a number of T-20 competitions springing up, like the “Big Bash” Down Under, IPL still retains its pre-eminent position as the cricket word’s premier league for international cricketers.