Inflation is too much money chasing too few
goods ~ what is too much money is chasing too many things ….. it is * IPL Auction *
Strange things happen
in Cricket – if you are to watch IPL only now – you would have no confusion ~
not for the afficando – for over the 8 years – so many changes in teams and
their composition and this year with 2 teams going out and 2 new coming in –
too many transfers / sales … Incidentally, the Q to the statistician – do you remember
8th May 2015 match at Chepauk when CSK lost ?
If you are following
U19 WC – in their QF match India thrashed Namibia, who had beaten South Africa
earlier. India 349 for 6 (Pant 111, Sarfaraz 76, Jaafer 64)
beat Namibia Under-19s 152 (Dagar 3-25, Anmolpreet 3-27) by 197 runs.
The young emerging
hero Rishabh Pant continued his fine run of form in the Under-19 World Cup,
slamming his third successive fifty-plus score to guide India into the
semi-finals following a 197-run win against Namibia. Pant, who had blasted the
fastest U-19 international half-century during the win against Nepal, scored
111 off 96 balls with 14 fours and two sixes, powering his team to a mammoth
349 for 6.
All these invariably
lead us to IPL … Professionals get more
money ! .. in this age of commercialism,
everyone tries to maximize their revenues, things are outsourced and experts
command a premium ! ~ To come under the hammer’ or ‘fall under the hammer’ are
phrases which refers to something being auctioned. .. ..
.. why pay so high for someone when that man actually knows little of the
product being sold and the process would anyway be the same – whosoever does
that ? – no answers perhaps !!!
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; 2014 and now again in 2016. Crores exchanged and some went for astronomical prices, nothing new other than the name of the players.
On a day when 94
players were sold for a total of Rs 136 crore* at the IPL 2016 auction in
Bangalore, it was a bunch of Indian uncapped players who drew the most
attraction and a good chunk of the cash too. Top among them - and one of four
men who walked away with a contract worth a million dollars or more - was Pawan
Negi, a left-arm spinner who can tonk the ball down the order, who was sold for
Rs 8.5 crore to Delhi Daredevils. South African allrounder Chris Morris was the
other surprise million-dollar man, fetching Rs 7 crore, also from Daredevils. Australian
allrounder Shane Watson bagged the biggest deal of the day, bought for Rs 9.5
crore by Royal Challengers Bangalore, while India's Yuvraj Singh secured his
third-straight million-dollar bid at an IPL auction. However the Rs 7 crore
Sunrisers Hyderabad bid for Yuvraj was far less than what he fetched at the
last two auctions - Rs 16 crore last year, and Rs 14 crore the year before
that. He looked like he might actually go unsold this time round after setting
his base price at Rs 2 crore, but at the last moment he got a bid from Mumbai
Indians, followed by Royal Challengers Bangalore, before being snapped up by
Sunrisers.
Another big surprise
was seam-bowling West Indies allrounder Carlos Brathwaite, who had impressed
with quickfire fifties down the order and his enthusiasm on the recent Test
series in Australia. He got a winning bid of 4.2 crore from Delhi Daredevils,
14 times his base price of Rs 30 lakh. There were big surprises among the
unsold players too: the in-form New Zealand and Australia batsmen Martin
Guptill and Usman Khawaja. Two big Test names, Cheteshwar Pujara and Hashim
Amla, also went unsold too, but a bit more surprisingly, there were no bids for
Mahela Jayawardene or Michael Hussey either. West Indies allrounder Darren
Sammy did not attract a bid either.
Karnataka batsman
Karun Nair was expected to be one of the big buys among the uncapped players,
and so it was soon after the lunch break with Daredevils, Supergiants and Lions
all bidding for him and bumping his price up to Rs 4 crore from a base price of
Rs 10 lakh. Baroda allrounder Deepak Hooda's price went up from Rs 10 lakh to
Rs 4.2 crore, secured by Sunrisers after a long round of bidding. Rajasthan
fast bowler Nathu Singh also earned big, getting Rs 3.2 crore from Mumbai
Indians, from a base priced of Rs 10 lakh. Mumbai Indians had made the winning
bid after a long back-and-forth between Daredevils and Royal Challengers. Tamil
Nadu legspinner M Ashwin was the most sought after slow bowler on a day when
spinners were generally ignored by the franchises, and also the biggest gainer;
he sold for Rs 4.5 crore to Supergiants from an opening bid of Rs 10 lakh - he
got a whopping 45 times his base price, the day's biggest multiple from the
base price. Seventeen-year-old India
Under-19 captain Ishan Kishan was picked up by Lions for Rs 35 lakh. His U-19
team-mate Rishabh Pant was fought for by Supergiants, Mumbai Indians, Royal
Challengers and Daredevils, bumping his base price up from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1.9
crore before Daredevils snapped him up.
All eleven spinners
lined up in the morning round of bidding went unsold, including India's Pragyan
Ojha and Rahul Sharma, the in-form Australian Nathan Lyon and Sri Lankan
mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis. West Indies legspinner Samuel Badree was bought
the second time his name came up, by Royal Challengers, for Rs 50 lakh. The
first and only Bangladesh buy of the day happened with Mustafizur Rahman (base
price Rs 50 lakh) going to Sunrisers for Rs 1.4 crore. Another big gainer among
the uncapped players was Uttar Pradesh wicketkeeper Eklavya Dwivedi, who went
to Lions for Rs 1 crore (base price Rs 20 lakh). Allrounder Krunal Pandya - brother of Hardik
Pandya who had debuted for India in the just-concluded T20s against Australia
and was retained by Mumbai Indians before the auction - was bought by Mumbai
Indians after a bidding war with Daredevils that bumped his price up to Rs 2
crore (base price Rs 10 lakh).
Perhaps Ranji trophy
is also being watched .. Left-arm seamer Jaydev Unadkat has been on a
song. He took four wickets in the second
innings to take his match tally to nine for 116 as Saurashtra thrashed Vidarbha
by an innings and 85 runs and book their place in the Ranji Trophy semifinal
for the first time in three seasons. Unadkat was snapped by my son’s fav team KKR
for 1.6 crores.
Now read
back, you will be surprised that you have read the names of some for the first
time !!!! ~ and if you are remembering that Q of that
match at Chepauk MI beat CSK then due to the heroics of Hardik Pandya. The
visitors had the chase of 159 under control with an 84-run opening stand in ten
overs, but R Ashwin had Parthiv Patel and Lendl Simmons caught in the deep in
the 11th. Dwayne Bravo ran out Kieron Pollard in the 12th as Super Kings
started their familiar fightback. The ball was turning, sharp fielders were
cutting off singles, and Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu were struggling to
score. The asking-rate rose to two runs a ball.
It was down to 30 off
the last two overs. Fast bowlers had conceded 0 for 64 in five overs, his
spinners had taken 2 for 54 in 11. Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja had bowled out.
Dhoni went for the left-arm spinner Negi, who had given ten in three overs and
had revitalized Super Kings innings with an unbeaten 36 off 17. Pandya cracked three
of Negi's first four balls for straight sixes. Game all but over. Rayudu lifted
the last ball for another straight six. From 30 off 12; it became 5 off 6 !
Wheels of
fortune have changed in a few months ~ now Negi is in the National squad and
yesterday he was bought by Delhi Daredevils for 8.5 crores !
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
7th Feb
2016.
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