trying to decipher IPL Auction 2021 ~~ !! some method in madness !!!

Would you employ a pilot for driving your two-wheeler ??.. .. Chris Morris becomes the costliest IPL buy ever @ 16.25 crores – a tall 6.8” NZ cricketer who has played 6 tests – hit a solitary 50 taken 36 test wickets; has played 2 ODIs and 4 T20s fetches 15 Crore !!

‘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….

IPL auction is a peculiar thing – spectators (whose views do not matter) know them well, those present (buyers / franchisees) are people with exceptional knowledge on Finance, Players, Team composition and more .. .. and, and, .. .. the auctioner, who would in general explain, promote and ensure selling knows nothing about the product being sold ie., players, their value, their past performance, cricketing statistics or their potential – yet the auctioner, is a overly paid Foreign expert   

It is not the intrinsic value but the demand for the property on sale that determines the price in Auction.  To outsider seeing it for the first time, IPL Auction is height of madness, but perhaps there is method in madness – when you study the rules and it is not only the player under the hammer, but the composition of the Team that the bidder is planning about that determines the relative value.  The rule is :  any team cannot spend more than their available purse;  they have to spend at least 75 percent of the money available for them at IPL 2021 Auction. A team can have a maximum of 8 overseas players and 17 Indian players for IPL 2021.

Out of the 292 shortlisted players for 2021 auction, 164 are Indian, 125 are overseas and the remaining three players belong to Associate Nations. As many as 113 capped players have registered under five price categories namely INR 2 crore (two Indian and eight overseas), INR 1.5 crore (12 overseas), INR 1 crore (two Indian and nine overseas), INR 75 lakh (15 overseas) and INR 50 lakh (13 Indian and 52 overseas).  Each of the eight teams were given a budget of 85 crore (roughly £9.3m) to fill up their squads with a maximum of 25 players.

Each team’s method of recruiting players is different. Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad have spent 74.25 crore on retaining 17 and 22 of last season’s 25-man squad respectively, leaving them approximately 10.75 crore to fill up the remainder of their squad at the auction. Kings XI Punjab, however, have only spent 31.8 crore on retaining 16 of their 25-man squad, leaving them 53.2 crore to sign nine more players at the auction. The retention process was finalised on 20 January.

Each of the 292 players available at the auction have set themselves a base price – a price at which the bidding will be opened for them. The players have been grouped by their speciality, with batsmen, all-rounders, wicket-keepers, fast bowlers and spinners being auctioned separately. The process is complicated further by ‘Right To Match’ cards, which were introduced in 2018. These allow a player’s previous team to match any winning offer for a player that they have just released.

To move away – and just get astonished – here are some big buys :

 

·         Chris Morris (Base price INR 75 lac) sold to Rajasthan Royals for INR 16.25 crore

·         Kyle Jamieson (Base price INR 75 lac) sold to Royal Challengers Bangalore for INR 15 crore

·         Glenn Maxwell (Base price INR 2 crore) sold to Royal Challengers Bangalore for INR 14.25 crore

·         Jhye Richardson (Base price INR 1.50 crore) sold to Punjab Kings for INR 14 crore

·         Krishnappa Gowtham (Base price INR 20 lac) sold to Chennai Super Kings for 9.25 crore

·         Adam Milne (Base price INR 50 lac) sold to Mumbai Indians for INR 3.20 crore

·         Shivam Dube (Base price INR 50 lac) sold to Rajasthan Royals for INR 4.40 crore

·         Moeen Ali (Base price INR 2 crore) sold to Chennai Super Kings for INR 7 crore

·         Steven Smith (Base price INR 2 crore) sold to Delhi Capitals for INR 2.20 crore

·         Nathan Coulter-Nile (Base price INR 1.50 crore) sold to Mumbai Indians for INR 5 crore

·         Piyush Chawla (Base price INR 50 lac) sold to Mumbai Indians for INR 2.40 crore

·         Shahrukh Khan (Base price INR 20 lac) sold to Punjab Kings for INR 5.25 crore

 

The auctioneer, Hugh Edmeades  is a British international fine art, classic car and charity auctioneer. In a 35-year career as a Christie’s auctioneer, he conducted more than 2,500 auctions, selling over 310,000 lots for a sum in excess of £2.7 billion. Hugh has sold a wide range of items including Old Master, Impressionist & Contemporary paintings, fine furniture, Chinese ceramics & works of art, and film & sporting memorabilia.   In 2004, Hugh conducted the auction of 88 guitars belonging to Eric Clapton raising a total of $7,438,624. Other interesting and unusual highlights have included Audrey Hepburn’s 'little black dress' from Breakfast at Tiffany's which sold in December 2006 for £467,000 and Daniel Craig’s Aston Martin DB10 from James Bond’s Spectre for £2,434,500 in February 2016.   In December 2018, Hugh was appointed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) as the auctioneer for the 2019 Indian Premier League (IPL), only the second person to have been given the honour and privilege of conducting this prestigious auction.  Earlier it was Richard Madley

Some of those who went unsold includes :  Karun Nair, Jason Roy, alex Hales, Aaron Finch,   Hanuma Vihari, Kedar Jadhav, Alex Carey, Sam, Billings, Kusal Perera, Sheldon Cottrel, Harbhajan Singh, Ish Sodhi, Ankit Rajpoot, Sandeep Lamichhane, Shaun Marsh, Corey Anderson, Darren Bravo,  Rassie van der Dussen, Martin Guptil, Pawan Negi, Ben Gutting,  Marnus Labuschagne, Varun Aaron, Oshane , Mohit Sharma , Billy Stanlake, Mitchell McClenaghan, Jason Behrendorff.. .. ...and more. 

I n t e r e s t i n g !!!

 

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
18.2.2021. @ 19.30 hrs