The IPL is back and its commissioner LK Modi is creating more stir than Suresh Kalmadi who mended the curve of Indian hockey for it to dribble again.
The moolah calls all the shots and the IPL auction testified that yesterday, as the commissioner read out auction rules and the accompanying dizzy figures – $750,000 being the ‘maximum’ a franchise could dish out. The cover-up for that ‘maximum’ though was the ‘secret bidding’ clause introduced as a last-minute amendment to end the tie-breaker over a bid. In case of a deadlock, the bidders had to secretly bid the sum over and above $750,000 that they could offer for the buyout. The highest secret bid would bag the player.
Quite expectedly, that is what hogged the limelight. Keiron Pollard – who stroked an 18-ball cameo of 54 runs in the inaugural Champions League – and Shane Bond, the ICL rebel, were the two who caused a tie. While MI made the highest ‘undisclosed bid’ for Pollard, Shahrukh Khan’s KKR took home Bond, possibly to replace Shoaib Akhtar.
Enough has been written and said about other famous buyouts. So instead of wasting words dwelling about those, it would be interesting to point out absolute steals, surprise not-solds and baffling purchases.
Steal
Eoin Morgan: Surprised to see not many bidding for this swashbuckling English southpaw with a batting average of 50.5 and strike rate of 168.3 in T20s. He was snapped up by RCB for $220,000. It could well turn out to be the deal of the season, barring the famous English security concerns.
Thissara Perera: One would have thought that the Sri Lankan all-rounder did enough in the recently concluded India tour to generate interest but it wasn’t exactly the case. CSK got him for his base price of $50,000 as nobody else vied for him.
Justin Kemp: Overlooked by Cricket South Africa after he signed for the rebel Indian Cricket League, Kemp is a real T20 dasher lower down the order. He filled CSK’s last berth for his base price of $100,000 after they recalled him into the auction for the second round.
Unsold
Shakib Al Hasan: He is ranked among the top in ICC’s list of leading all-rounders, the breed T20s desire. However, he couldn’t catch any eye and was left in the cold unsold.
Lendl Simmons: The petit West Indian is a live wire in the field and more than useful with both bat and ball but his three-way utility couldn’t find any takers.
Upul Tharanga: He too has been in prime form at top of the order, so much so that he replaced Jayasuriya as an opener for Sri Lanka, but not sold.
Risky Buy
Kemar Roach: He may bowl at 145 kmph incessantly but the fact that he is still an untested rookie and an expatriate, makes him too risky a purchase at too high a price of $720,000 shelled out by DC. The decision doesn’t make any sense with Fidel Edwards already in their ranks.
Damian Martyn and Adam Voges: RR seemed to be having telepathy with Shane Warne as they bought these two relatively unnecessary Australian players: the former a classy but not in vogue Aussie with an ICL tag and the latter with a not-so-impressive T20 record. Of course, they came for their base price of $100,000 and $50,000 respectively, saving RR a purse of unused $600,000.
All said, done, watched and heard, my personal feeling is that IPL-3 will go into the kitty of a team that has the best Indian resources in their rank.