The biggest run of the cricketing season, the Indian Premier League kick-started with the IPL player auctions 2011 that included 2 new teams - Team Kochi and Pune Warriors. The 2011 player auctions have been a real talking point as the fresh season encountered small amendments in policies and rules apart from the policy set for the first three years of the IPL. As ex-IPL commissioner, Lalit Modi hinted, we have a retention policy to follow wherein a team can retain 4 players of which they can hold back a maximum of 3 Indian players. Also the ceiling of the price budget has been raised higher to $8 million where retaining expensive players will decrease the spending cap of the franchise to a mere $ 4.5 million!
Here is a brief team wise analysis about the teams who saw a blue grabbing a good deal and others who looked in complete disarray at the auctions.
The Mumbai Indians come first under their skipper, the iconic Tendulkar. They retained Tendulkar, Harbhajan, Pollard and slinger Malinga ahead of the player auctions this year. Though I felt Rohit Sharma at $ 2 million, was an expensive buy, they had a good deal picking medium-pacer Munaf Patel at $0.7 million and the South-African Davy Jacobs at $0.19 million for his outstanding fielding skills and his very aggressive batting style. I do feel, they have missed out on Zak (Zaheer) who along with Malinga made a dream combination last year. And with Symonds in, Tendulkar will have a tough time with the symo-Bhajji duo.
Delhi Daredevils come up next. Their team just looks pretty ordinary without Gauti, Vettori and Dinesh Kaarthik, who have added a star value to the side last year. However they have retained the much valuable and explosive T20 willow-wielder Virender Sehwag. They have roped in Naman Ojha, James Hopes and Warner as batsmen and in final stages of the auction they have also managed to get in Colin Ingram in an effort to strengthen their batting line-up. And Irfan Pathan at $ 1.9 million is a very expensive deal especially since he now will be a fresh player after being discarded from the national team for a lack of swing and pace.. Good bowlers? Well.. Agarkar, Morne Morkel, and Travis Birt could be of some help!
Deccan Chargers have had a good day at the auctions with Pietersen (KP), White, Sangakkara, and also with Duminy joining them, they sport a decent batting line-up. And I admire their balance for batsmen and bowlers. Their pace bowling is helmed by Steyn, Ishant and Theron while they have Pragyan and Mishra to satisfy their spinning desires. And has anybody ever heard of this Daniel Christian ever before he was thrown a deal at the auctions?. No? Not a problem.. he had just played 3 International T20 games and I feel a million USD is not a good deal for the Chargers. Nevertheless, Deccan still holds $2.1 million to buy uncapped players unlike other team owners have a very small purse left.
Preity’s Kings XI Punjab gave a lacklustre performance at the 2011 player auctions at Bangalore. They remained to be in utter confusion throughout the auctions that they never bothered to go behind top grade players except for Adam Gilchrist. Of the players contracted, Gilchrist and David Hussey make a good bat while Dinesh Kaarthik and Abhishek Nayar will play the second fiddle. The bowling department would have looked pathetic with a lone seamer, but Preity has decided to go with Rimmington and Mascarenhas for cheaper rates to partner Praveen Kumar. While the spin department looks weak and lacks experience with Piyush Chawla and Ryan Harris.
Shilpa’s Rajasthan Royals have decided to retain the most experienced spin wizard Shane Warne and his Australian counterpart Watson will be retained as well. While Ross Taylor and Johan Botha were picked for $ 1 million and $ 0.95 million, Rahul Dravid and Collingwood were bought cheaply at $ 0.5 million and $ 0.25 million. Warne would look to repeat his magic all over with many uncapped players in the team and he along with Dravid would certainly look to share the odd wisecrack with the boys. For now, the bowling department will hold the names of Warne, Tait and Watson.
The Kolkata Knight Riders after initial setbacks in the previous editions of the IPL have decided to get into the tournament with an all-new squad. The KKR were in the news for roping in Gautam Gambhir and Yusuf Pathan at expensive deals for $ 2.4 million and $ 2.1 million respectively on the first day of the auctions. They have also contracted the much experienced ex-RCB strike batsman Jacques Kallis. Their bowling department looks decent but while specialist batsmen and bowlers were the order of the day, they decided to go with the Bangladeshi all-rounder Shakib Al Hassan, who comes with immense unexplored talent. However the injury prone Brett Lee’s $ 0.4 million offer surprises me. Well.. reasons for not going with Sourav?.. It is business and while the team stays solid, their fan bases look disturbed!
Here come the champions of the IPL, The Chennai Super Kings. The team with the simplest strategy – “Retain the winning combination”. They used their player retention clause so very wise retaining M S Dhoni, Raina, Vijay and Albie. Other players who were picked at the auction were Doughy Bollinger, Mike Hussey and the spin prospect Ashwin. One of the biggest good deals was getting Bravo cheaply for $0.2 million. For sure, there has been a lot of work doing rounds with the think-tank ahead of the auctions and this is such a dream combination. Dhoni will also have Randiv as a spinning option now, after missing out on the wily Murali at the auctions. CSK still remain a solid team with good batting and bowling options.
Team Kochi comes up next. Their batsmen - Jayawardena, Mccullum and Owais shah will be pressed with availability concerns. While Sreeshanth does bring in the Kerala flavour and fan base, one cannot expect a great performance from him. Their bowling looks comparatively better. RP Singh, Vinay Kumar and Murali will make a lethal bowling attack. They for sure will have to bring in a real good bunch of uncapped players. And How good is Ravindra Jadeja’s deal??..Too much for a rookie I would say.
The Bangalore Royal Challengers never went for the big names under the hammer. But some of the striking deals made were that of Zaheer, Vettori and Nannes. They have a good batting line-up that relies on Dilshan, De Villiers, and Pujara. Sourabh Tiwary will also come handy at pressure situations. Their pace merchants will be Zaheer, Nannes and Langeveldt while Vettori will probably ally with Dilshan. And Kaif comes in as an add-on packet and his best days are clearly over. So RCB’s chances looks bright too.
Though the Pune Warriors will be a fresh team into the IPL they have had a reasonably good day at the auctions. Their expensive player was Robin Uthappa for $ 2.1 million. They were very clear in what they want. And they went on to get them at lower prices as well. This side has got a good all-rounder combination of Yuvraj and Mathews. And they went on to make a great deal getting in Graeme Smith for $ 0.5 million while their best buy will be Murali Karthik for $ 0.4 million.
It indeed was a black Sunday when big boys to the likes of Chris Gayle, legendries Brian Lara and Jayasuriya and our very own Sourav Ganguly found it hard to convince the franchise owners. There certainly was a chill down my spine when one of India’s finest skippers was shown the gate and even when his name failed to make it to the re-auction list as well, it was a complete shocker!
Anyways.. Ultimately it’s for a cricketing reason we all are here for!! .. So let’s get down there to catch up with lots of live action, entertainment, surprise and a bit of gossip and controversy here and there as well!
