As a late convert to the IPL, I’ve got to admit that the bidding process has me totally flummoxed. Why do all the franchises want Aussies? Did they not see the Ashes? Have they forgotten what happened in the T20 World Cup final?
Thus far Steve Smith, James Hopes, David Warner, Shaun Marsh, Adam Gilchrist, Doug Bollinger, and David Hussey have all been snapped up like Aussies are going out of fashion … which, of course, they are (in sane parts of the world).
To illustrate my point, wicketkeepers Tim Paine and Brad Haddin have secured lucrative deals, whilst – at the time of writing – Matt Prior and Mark Boucher will be sitting on the sidelines twiddling their thumbs. Who would you rather have in your team?
Meanwhile, Andrew Symonds, who most Englishmen thought had retired to pursue a career in drinking and curfew breaking, was sold for $200,000 more than Kevin Pietersen – the bloke whose blistering half century in the T20 World Cup final defeated the country that jettisoned Symonds before the IPL was even a glint in Lalit Modi’s eye.
However, the one that really beggars belief is the cold shoulder given to Chris Gayle – you know, the former Windies captain, the most destructive opener in world cricket and self-proclaimed T20 devotee. How can anyone prefer David Warner to Gayle? I know that Indians are cricket nuts – and generally know their (Graham?) onions – but I didn’t realise the IPL was actually insane.
There may well be a logic to all this which has escaped me. Maybe all teams with Aussie players are given a twenty run head start in the IPL? Or maybe the subcontinent doesn’t realise that the new generation of Aussie players isn’t fit to lace the boots of their English counterparts, let alone the Aussie greats that preceded them.
However, there is one rational explanation. Very few English players declare for the IPL because it clashes with the start of our domestic season. And those that do are not available for the whole tournament – which partially explains why Graeme Swann was snubbed. Therefore maybe, just maybe, the Aussies are expected to do well because their Ashes nemeses won’t be around.
I’d love to watch the value of Australian players plummet if Jimmy Anderson suddenly committed himself to the entire event. England’s bowlers hit the Aussies hard in the Ashes – it would be funny if they hit them in the pocket too.
The IPL Auction – The Crazy Story So Far
Gautam Gambhir – 2.4 Million USD (Kolkata Knight Riders)
Yusuf Pathan – 2.1 Million USD (Kolkata Knight Riders)
Robin Uthappa – 2.1 Million USD (Pune Warriors)
Rohit Sharma – 2.0 Million USD (Mumbai Indians)
Irfan Pathan – 1.9 Million USD (Delhi Daredevils)
Yuvraj Singh – 1.8 Million USD (Pune Warriors)
Saurabh Tiwary – 1.6 Million USD (Royal Challengers Bangalore)
Mahela Jayawardhane – 1.5 Million USD (Kochi)
David Hussey – 1.4 Million USD (Kings XI Punjab)
Dale Steyn – 1.2 Million USD (Decan Chargers)
Muttiah Muralitharan – 1.1 Million USD (Kochi)
AB de Villiers – 1.1 Million USD (Royal Challengers Bangalore)
Cameron White – 1.1 Million USD (Decan Chargers)
Jacques Kallis – 1.1 Million USD (Kolkata Knight Riders)
Ross Taylor – 1 Million USD (Rajasthan Royals)
Angelo Mathews – 0.95 Million USD (Pune Warriors)
Johan Botha – 0.95 Million USD (Rajasthan Royals)
Ravindra Jadeja – 0.95 Million USD (Kochi)
Zaheer Khan – 0.9 Million USD (Royal Challengers Bangalore)
Dinesh Karthik – 0.9 Million USD (Kings XI Punjab)
Adam Gilchrist – 0.9 Million USD (Kings XI Punjab)
Sreesanth – 0.9 Million USD (Kochi)
Piyush Chawla – 0.9 Million USD (Kings XI Punjab)
R Ashwin – 0.85 Million USD (Chennai Super Kings)
Andrew Symonds – 0.85 Million USD (Mumbai Indians)
S Badrinath – 0.8 Million USD (Chennai Super Kings)
Praveen Kumar – 0.8 Million USD (Kings XI Punjab)
Abhishek Nayar – 0.8 Million USD (Kings XI Punjab)
David Warner – 0.75 Million USD (Delhi Daredevils)
Cheteswar Pujara – 0.7 Million USD (Royal Challengers Bangalore)
Doug Bollinger – 0.7 Million USD (Chennai Super Kings)
Kumar Sangakkara – 0.7 Million USD (Decan Chargers)
Tilakratne Dilshan – 0.65 Million USD (Royal Challengers Bangalore)
Dirk Nannes – 0.65 Million USD (Royal Challengers Bangalore)
Kevin Pietersen – 0.65 Million USD (Decan Chargers)
Daniel Vettori – 0.55 Million USD (Royal Challengers Bangalore)
Pragyan Ojha – 0.5 Million USD (Decan Chargers)
Rahul Dravid – 0.5 Million USD (Rajasthan Royals)
Graem Smith – 0.5 Million USD (Pune Warriors)
RP Singh – 0.5 Million USD (Kochi)
Brendon McCullum – 0.475 Million USD (Kochi)
Manoj Tiwary – 0.475 Million USD (Kolkata Knight Riders)
Morne Morkel – 0.475 Million USD (Delhi Daredevils)
Ishant Sharma – 0.45 Million USD (Decan Chargers)
Brad Hodge – 0.425 Million USD (Kochi)
Shakib al Hasan – 0.475 Million USD (Kolkata Knight Riders)
Michael Hussey – 0.425 Million USD (Chennai Super Kings)
Brett Lee – 0.4 Million USD (Kolkata Knight Riders)
Stuart Broad – 0.4 Million USD (Kings XI Punjab)
VVS Laxman – 0.4 Million USD (Kochi)
Eoin Morgan – 0.35 Million USD (Kolkata Knight Riders)
James Hopes – 0.35 Million USD (Delhi Daredevils)
Ryan Harris – 0.325 Million USD (Kings XI Punjab)
Brad Haddin – 0.325 Million USD (Kolkata Knight Riders)
Callum Ferguson – 0.3 Million USD (Pune Warriors)
Aaron Finch – 0.3 Million USD (Delhi Daredevils)
Amit Mishra – 0.3 Million USD (Decan Chargers)
Shikhar Dhawan – 0.3 Million USD (Decan Chargers)
JP Duminy – 0.3 Million USD (Decan Chargers)
Parthiv Patel – 0.29 Million USD (Kochi)
Naman Ojha – 0.27 Million USD (Delhi Daredevils)
Tim Paine – 0.27 Million USD (Pune Warriors)
Paul Collingwood – 0.25 Million USD (Rajasthan Royals)
Steven Smith – 0.2 Million USD (Kochi)
Dwayne Bravo – 0.2 Million USD (Chennai Super Kings)
Davy Jacobs – 0.19 Million USD (Mumbai Indians)
Ramesh Powar – 0.18 Million USD (Kochi)
Nathan McCullum – 0.1 Million USD (Pune Warriors)
Unsold Players: Tamim Iqbal, Chamara Kapugedera, Murali Kartik, Ajantha Mendis, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Dilhara Fernando, Luke Wright, Matt Prior, Mark Boucher, Graeme Manou, Brian Lara, Herschelle Gibbs, Jesse Ryder, Sourav Ganguly and Chris Gayle.
James Morgan
How i Gambhir worth $2.4M? That is insane…
Can’t remember the exact figures, but I think that Gambhir was valued higher than 20 Eoin Morgans! Insane indeed.
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All i can say is IPL team can have only 4 foreign players and they have to make hard choices… Therefore it better to invest in Indian players
Indeed. All the Indian players signed for big money are quality players – guys that any country would want in their team. It’s just wierd to think about Gambhir etc being worth ten/twenty times more than players with similarly good records! Suppose it’s just a strange side-effect of the bidding process.
I think it’s largely the ‘Real’ effect – how many shirts will Collingwood sell in India, and how many will Gambhir?
It’s easy, from this distance, not to realize how famous a lot of Indian cricketers are in India, and how anonymous a lot of the English are. Also, Australia has been top of the tree for a long time so, inevitably, their players are better advertizing prospects.
In the firsts IPL, KP sold for $1.55, if memory serves, and did very little to deserve it. He ended up playing better as a bowler than a batsmen.
Its a simple case of demand and supply really! 7 Indian players + 4 foreign players x 10 teams. This explains the value of the Indian players, huge demand, less supply. Also, you yourself said that the reason for the English players getting the snub is because they will miss a huge chunk of the matches, so why would the teams splurge the already capped quota on players who wont be available. If you noticed, WI players also were given a miss, surely Chris Gayle would be wanted in any team, but no one bid for him because he will miss a huge chunk of his games. Also, if the ECB did now have this cocky holier than thou attitude against the BCCI, the English players could be doing well.
England did win the T-20 world cup, they won the Ashes, overall they had a great year. But so did India, Sri Lanka and South Africa. Plus most English players have struggled in India. Apart from maybe Bopara, everyone has flopped in the previous seasons. That might also explain the general snub.
Thanks for the feedback, Prakash. It’s good to have some insight from someone in the know. We aren’t really complaining about the English players being snubbed – in many ways it works to the England team’s advantage, as we have a busy schedule in April/May. The article is really just an excuse to have a humorous pop at the Australians – which is kind of our market ;-) Our regular readers would expect nothing less!
It’s interesting that the ECB are perceived as having a ‘holier than thou’ attitude by other countries. In England, the perception is very much the opposite i.e. many people here think that Modi and the BCCI are determined to dominate World Cricket (in fact, some believe that Bangladesh were given test status prematurely purely to give the Asian block the edge in ICC votes). I’m not saying that this is view we share at The Full Toss – I’m just saying that’s what some people in the northern hemisphere believe.
I’m fairly sure Asia is in the northern hemisphere too. Could you narrow it down a bit?
Dan Christian for 900k today – guess the Deccan Chargers really really wanted someone to bat 9 and bowl 4th change. I was not impressed with him for Hampshire last year but now he is worth double KP and Broad. Madness.
I don’t think here is a plot against English players but the auction has certainly turned out some odd results. I’m glad of this article and Prakash’s comment to help me make sense of it. The IPL is a domestic league, the organisers are free to do what they want with it, good luck to them. On the other hand the rest of the cricketing world isn’t obliged to watch or make a window for the competition.
That is a bloody good point. We are in danger of sounding very colonial and condescending – why do any English players deserve by right a place in an Indian tournament?
The counter argument, of course, is that the BCCI have been so arrogant in their positioning of the tournament as a global event, and demanded so much cooperation from the rest of the world – eg banning ICL players. They can’t have it both ways.
The counter argument is so complete and final that the original argument should be completely destroyed.
The actions taken against players who have played in ICL are a disgrace.
http://www.espnstar.com/cricket/indian-premier-league/news/detail/item561432/%22Owners-wary-of-English-availability%22/
pakistan deserve to be in ipl
they also have some players who are very good like shahid afridi umar gul sohail tanvir k akmal u akmal youns khan yusuf tanvir ahmed and many more
i agree i think pakistan also should be in the ipl although i am from india
Unsold players
Tamim Iqbal????
Although not a big one day fan, I have booked the day off work to watch England v Bangladesh, just to watch Tamim Iqbal.