The IPL from the time of its inception has only grown bigger. So much so that from 2022 onwards, 10 teams will be competing at the event. This essentially means that the IPL window will be increased from 2 months to 3 months. I am not a big fan of the IPL because I always felt that it promotes club culture rather than country culture and that it is held during the traditional off-season for the players who would have been better off to work on their skills. Having said that, the obscene money spent at the IPL auction last night beggars belief. Now there are so many millionaires that you are left to wonder whether they are all worth that much money.
Who are the top buys?
The top 6 picks, Chris Morris for 16.25CR, Kyle Jamieson for 15CR, Jhye Richardson for 14CR, Maxwell for 14.65CR, Gowtham for 9.25CR & Tom Curran for 5.25CR.
This totals to 60CR. That is an enormous amount of money to be spent of 5 individuals some of whom are not proven at all. Let us take the case of Gowtham. He is an uncapped player from Karnataka. Uncapped in the sense, he has never played for India in any format. CSK had spent 9.25CR on purchasing him. His first class, List A & T20 statistics are not flashy either. He is neither a bowler nor a batsmen. To cap all of it, he is 32 years old. What has CSK seen in him for splurge so much money on him? It is beyond comprehension. This certainly looks like CSK wants only the players who are 30 years old or above.
I cannot complain on purchasing Pujara because this was more out of respect for what Pujara did in Australia rather than anything else although with an important series coming up in England, it would have been better for Pujara to find an English county so that he could have prepared for the series. Money-wise, it would have been higher. The same can be said about Rahane and a few others who will not play consistently for their respective franchise. The dad’s army tag on CSK is not going anywhere.
Do the franchise remove their brains while bidding?
Take for example Kyle Jamieson. He is supposed to be an allrounder. Agreed that he has hardly played that many games to form an real opinion about him but that is also the same reason he does not really deserve the price tag of 15CR. It is hard to understand what were RCB thinking? Not only Jamieson they had spent a further 14.65CR on Glenn Maxwell who apart from one season has been a complete failure. He certainly marketed himself pretty well and went on record in letting everyone know that he wants to play for RCB. He must have even talked to Kohli about it. RCB will look like idiots if Maxwell again fails in 2021. Chris Morris certainly performed decently in 2020 but is he really 16.25CR worth product? That is open to question. Time will tell whether these costly picks will justify their price tag.
Hard to explain omissions
David Malan the top ranked T20 batsman was picked only for his base price. This cannot be explained by any metrics. How is the top ranked player less valuable than a player with not much experience or a player who had failed often? Jason Roy & Alex Hales, proven limited overs players went unsold. Surely a team like CSK with its granddads will want to have some youngsters in the line up but it wasn’t to be. Having said that they were some good omissions too. Aaron Finch went unsold. He completely failed last year and was even dropped for a few games. Smith did not fetch any higher than his base price which makes sense considering his lack of performance in 2020.
Is there a measurement of performance commensurate with payment?
I highly doubt whether the franchises have a performance measurement that will justify such a high price tag on the players. What happens if Maxwell under performs? Will they want to pay him only half of the promised amount? I strongly believe that there must be cap on each player beyond which none of the franchise will be allowed to spend on a particular player. This will also ensure that they have enough funds that could be spent on betterment of the game.
How does the franchise recover the funds?
I am sure none of the franchise owner cares about winning the actual IPL itself and they do not recover the worth of money spent by winning the tournament. No never. Instead they earn money through selling merchandise, advertisement, gate receipts and various other forms. If they are capable of spending so much on the players, they must be earning in millions. How does owners like Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Juhi Chawla who were only movie stars, are able to spend this much amount is beyond reason.
The willingness of other boards to release their players for IPL
The power of IPL is clear from the way the England team is treating their players. IPL mainstays like Bairstow, Buttler, Archer, Stokes, Curran and a few others were given regular breaks despite an important series against India. In the guise of protecting their players from mental fatigue because of the bubble, the England have ensured that they leave their players right till the end of IPL. This is probably done to ensure that their players do not revolt because the money that they earn through IPL will be equal to 2-3 years of their annual income from the ECB. The ECB when IPL was initiated were very much against it and now things are completely different. T
he English players who will play in the IPL will miss the test series against New Zealand. The ICC itself have bent over backwards and have ensured a spotless window for IPL. The less said about the other boards the better it is. They certainly do not have backbone to stand up to the Indian board. Such is the power of the IPL and the Indian board. Will sense prevail?
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