Professionals get more money ! .. in this age of commercialism, everyone tries
to maximize their revenues, things are outsourced and experts command a premium
! ~ but do they pay for their mistakes or somebody else does !!!! To come under the hammer’ or ‘fall under the hammer’
are phrases which refers to something being auctioned. The word "auction" is derived from
the Latin augeō which means "I increase" or "I
augment". In market, there are
fixed price shops and there are shops where you bargain, buy in the end and
still rue thinking that you could have bought for a lower price !! An auction
is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for
bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder, though there
are some variants too….
The man in news is Richard Madley .. the man conducting IPL player
auction. Richard Madley, who lives in
Biddestone and works for Dreweatts in Bristol,
did it in 2008 for Indian Premier League, when 8 teams spent over $40
million in eight hours to ‘own’ 75 best cricket players in the world; he was back in 2011; 2012 and now again in
Feb 2014 at Bangalore. Crores exchanged
and some went for astronomical prices.
On day 1 - 212.35 - Rupees in crores
was spent in the auction. Delhi Daredevils, the only team not to retain
any players ahead of the auction, spent Rs. 51.40 crore, nearly one-fourth of
the total money spent. 5 players were traded for more than a million with
Yuvraj Singh being bought for 14 crores of Rupees and Dinesh Karthik fetching
12.5 crores…. Luck ran out for close to 150 players of which there were a dozen
and half Indian capped players too. Railways legspinner Karan Sharma and
Himachal Pradesh allrounder Rishi Dhawan became the two most expensive uncapped
players on the second day of the IPL player auction. Karn, who played for
Sunrisers Hyderabad last season, was bought back for a startling Rs 3.75 crores
(US $625,000) while Dhawan went to Kings XI Punjab for Rs 3 crores ($500,000). On day 2 franchises spent Rs 50.25 crores
($8.38 million) taking the total spend to Rs 262.6 crores ($43.8 million). The
second day of the auction saw most franchises contest fiercely for the
lesser-known Indian domestic players to build their squads after they had
bought the core of the team on Monday. Maharashtra batsman Kedar Jadhav (Delhi
Daredevils, Rs 2 crores); Delhi allrounder Rajat
Bhatia(Royals, 1.7 crores), Karnataka opening batsman Mayank Agarwal
(Daredevils, 1.6 crores), MP and India
In some ways, it is easy for Richard Madley - unlike many other auctions, he need not
justify the base price or speak on the merit of what was on sale. It is not the intrinsic value but the demand
for the property on sale that determines the price in Auction. There are various ways in this modern World –
the IPL player auction occurs in a plush atmosphere but in somewhat antiquated
fashion. The buyers – representatives of
IPL franchisees sit in round tables and raise a paddle indicating their bid…
the amount goes incremental, until there is a single buyer…. Simple !!
There has been considerable
criticism on the beleaguered Kingfisher chief splashing Rs 14 crore in buying
Yuvraj Singh ~ criticized as a splurge coming in as it did when the Kingfisher
Airlines is mired in financial difficulty. The left-hander Yuvi has not in been great form, has had forgettable time in recent International outing, fitness dogging him – yet the team chose to buy him at a very high price …. and as it happens – the liability of the Company or the financial position of a Company is separate from that of the individual, be its owner, promoter or…. that way, one need to see this in isolation not linking with the business empire of the liquor baron.
The game is a leveller – the auction is a
revelation … it brought cheers to some, brought more to the ground – with no
takers or low prices, much lower than what they would have anticipated. In life
and on field, there are no comparisons
!!! The fact also remains that Royal Challengers
Bangalore could have acquired Yuvraj for a substantially lower amount, had it
not been for some drama / a colossal mistake by the conductor during the
auction. Reports state that auctioneer Richard Madley had closed the
deal for Bangalore
Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals made
the opening bids for Yuvraj before Vijay Mallya, the owner of Royal
Challengers, raised the paddle to bid at Rs 3.5 crores (approx $583,000). The
bid escalated fast and reached the 10-crore mark. The confusion arose, as the
auctioneer apparently failed to notice the paddle raised by Kolkata Knight
Riders. Knight Riders withdrew their bid at Rs 13.5 crores ($2.25 million)
before Mallya raised another Rs 50 lakhs to close the debate. Mallya is quoted
as sating that Virat Kohli, the Royal Challengers' captain, was "keen"
on getting Yuvraj. That extra Rs 4 crores was somewhat unfortunate, but the
auctioneer has the sole discretion," Mallya said. "Everybody saw him
look around the room before the hammer fell but he then chose to continue the
bidding. So life must go on."
Mallaya later lodged an
official protest with the IPL governing council, against the Knight Riders over
the Yuvraj bid. "For me the hammer went down at 10 crores for Yuvraj
Singh," he told Times Now. "We have officially written to the IPL
governing council for the decision to be overturned." Ranjib Biswal, the
IPL chairman, confirmed the RCB complaint but said the final decision was that
of the auctioneer. "They filed a complaint asking Yuvraj should be given
to them at 10 crores and not 14, but we can't do anything now," Biswal
said.
So, it was a bloomer by the
expert which bled somebody else ~
downunder Brisbane, Bruce Oxenford had the simple task of pressing one of the 2
buttons in front … he pressed one and claimed that he had pressed the wrong one
!! ~ the auctioneer Madley whose only work was to watch out the bids, failed
noticing one….
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
14th Feb 2o14.
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