It’s the biggest auction ever in cricket as 353 of the best in business go under the hammer for IPL-4 with 10 cash-rich franchisees bidding for them in Bangalore; Yusuf Pathan expected to fetch top price.
As the clock strikes 11 on Saturday morning, Richard Madley, one the leading auctioneers from Britain will take centrestage at the Mysore Hall of the ITC Royal Gardenia in Bangalore. Up for grabs will be 353 of the world’s top cricketers, as 10 cash-rich teams will start the bidding for the fourth edition of the Indian Premier League.
By Friday evening, all the team owners, barring Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta reached Bangalore and the stage was set for the biggest auction in cricket history. Soon after, BCCI officials briefed the franchisees about the auction process, which is slated to be pretty similar to the first auction.
While everything else seemed smooth, the only cause of concern was that BCCI is yet to get an NOC from the English Cricket Board, which means that the England players on the auction list will have to await the NOC from ECB before they make it to the hammer.
But unlike the first auction, where the star players were picked up by teams based on their star value, this time around, the team owners will be taking their pick based on previous IPL performances and their T20 records.
As of Friday night, Yusuf Pathan and Saurabh Tiwary are the two players in demand. Five teams want them in their respective teams and it won’t be a surprise if one of the two, especially Pathan, walks away with the title of being the most expensive player in this auction.
Pathan, with a base price of $300,000, has the capacity of turning a game single-handedly, with his all-round ability, especially batting. Though five franchisees want him in the team at any cost, almost all teams will be bidding for Pathan, with the only exception likely to be Royal Challengers Bangalore. With Pathan not comfortable with endorsing liquor brands, RCB may not be able to utilise his brand value to the fullest.
Zaheer Khan, Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa have also been able to generate a lot of interest. Meanwhile, amongst the overseas players, AB de Villiers, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Jacques Kallis and Doug Bollinger seem to be heading the most-wanted list.
On the other hand, there are few takers for senior players like Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman, and one might just see them being bagged by one of the two new teams - Kochi and Pune - who’d want a dash of brand value more than their T20 performances.
It will also be a big test for players like Sanath Jayasuriya, who has been kept out of Sri Lanka’s World Cup squad and Brian Lara, who is trying to make a comeback into active cricket. With Lara’s base price at $400,000, one wonders whether he will find any takers, since he has been away from active cricket for almost four years now.
While teams like Kolkata Knight Riders, Kings XI Punjab, Deccan Chargers, Sahara Pune Warriors and Team Kochi will have full $9 million at their disposal, Chennai and Mumbai will have to do a lot of thinking, as their spending capacity has been reduced to half after they retained four players each.
So, one can really expect a lot of mind games at the Mysore Hall for the next two days as many a player get richer by millions.
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