The Rs 16 crore springboard

Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Delhi Daredevils has given Yuvraj Singh a fresh lease of life at a time when he is nowhere near the Indian team.

For the second time in two years, Yuvraj on Monday became the most expensive player at the IPL auctions ever when Delhi Daredevils, the team that finished last in the previous edition of IPL with just two wins in 14 games, acquired him for an over-the-roof Rs16 crore for the eighth edition of the annual cricket entertainment.

Royal Challengers Bangalore had pulled out a purse of Rs 14 crore for him last year — the highest at that time.

By shelling out the most any franchise has paid for an individual since the 2008 auctions, Daredevils have shown that the 'Brand Yuvraj Singh' is alive and kicking, ready to go places.

Monday's auction would also have given Yuvraj a reason to reflect on how his life has come a full circle. After paying a record fee last year, RCB released him "to ensure that the purse of other teams are also defeated so that you are able to get better players while going forward," as its director PA Murali put it. Monday's price, puts him back on top again.

Now that Yuvraj is back in the news, he will look at IPL as a springboard to leap back into the Indian team. The Rs 16-crore purse is whopping but the opportunity is priceless.

Yuvraj has been out of the Indian team since December 2013, and April 2014 if you count the Twenty20s as well. There have been debates on his exclusion from the ongoing World Cup considering his past heroics and what he could do on his given day. However, he was not in prime form when he was last in the Indian team.

But the Punjab 33-year-old has not lost his burning desire to make a comeback to Team India.

At a time when Yuvraj was not included in the World Cup 30 probables and was released by RCB for IPL 2015, Yuvraj gave an impression that he is down. But the fighter in him, he has overcome a life-threatening cancer, has not given up. He was doing duty for Punjab in Ranji Trophy and even scored three back-to-back hundreds.

While all products have a sell-by date and are nearly forgotten once they are not in prominence, there are a few who continue to demand the attention that they received during their heydays. Like the evergreen Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, to name just a few. Yuvraj has certainly fallen in that bracket, thanks to the IPL and the franchises' ways of thinking.

There is no doubt that Yuvraj is a match-winner, a 'rockstar' who can still bring in the 'X' factor and attract a huge fan following. But the money only gurantees his participation, not success. He could still be a flop as was the case in last year's IPL when all he could manage was 376 runs at an average of 34.18 in 14 innings with only three half-centuries.

His Punjab Ranji Trophy coach Bhupinder Singh had this to say about his determination to return to the Indian team: "Yuvraj is still motivated that he will come back to the Indian team. He is working hard and was not really upset that he was not picked for the World Cup. He had made up his mind that it was not the end of the world and that the best way to return to the national team was by working hard. His back-to-back hundreds were typical of the Yuvraj we have known earlier."

Bhupinder, a former national selector, added that Yuvraj took things in his stride. "That these things (dropped from the Indian team) happen in life," was how he approached it. He added that Yuvraj, at the moment, is concentrating on the inter-state Twenty20, wanting to play and do well.

Daredevils have gone about with their belief in a particular player and are hoping that a player like Yuvraj will only lift the team from last year's miserable show when this year's edition gets under way a week after the World Cup ends.