New Delhi: Ten teams, 350 players, 74 matches, USD 9 million salary cap for each team: the Indian Premier League (IPL) is back as the franchisees finalise the list of players they want to bid for in the auction on January 8-9 at Bangalore.
Buy a Rahul Dravid and get a batting manual free or go for a Michael Hussey and forget all your worries! Better still, bid for Graeme Swann and get 101 tips on writing witty tweets! But that's not what lures dollar-loaded pockets to ballrooms converted into an IPL auction house.
Rather, it's Dravid's studious batsmanship, Hussey's eleventh-hour knocks and Swann's off-spin as incisive as his tweets that turns them into 'wanted' cricketers by the IPL franchises, who will once again raise their billboards in the two-day-long players' auction for the league's fourth season.
With the auctioneer set to bang his hammer in the Garden City, an ironical absentee from the list of 350 players will be the state's favourite son Anil Kumble. The former skipper of India and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and the serving President of the Karnataka State Cricket Association has now decided to quit the IPL pit-stop as well – the only competitive field he graced after giving up international cricket.
But while Kumble looks after his administrative career and photography passion, he will remain the Chief Mentor of liquor-baron Vijay Mallya's RCB.
Grapes turned sour in the period between league's third edition and the upcoming auction. IPL's architect Lalit Modi turned into a villain and got suspended from the commissioner's post. FIRs were registered against him, leading to lookout circulars being issued and Modi taking shelter in the UK, citing threat to his life in India.
Nobody knew the mess was going to get messier. Fingers were pointed on the ownership of Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab, which eventually led to termination of their contracts by the BCCI. But the teams owned by Bollywood stars Shilpa Shetty and Preity Zinta, respectively, gave it back to the BCCI by getting a stay order from the Bombay High Court against the BCCI's termination.
Letting bygones be bygones, let's get back into the auction hall where there will be two more tables carrying the 'reserved' nameplate. The IPL will welcome two new members to its family, taking the number of teams from 8 to 10 with the addition of Team Kochi and Team Pune.
Pune, owned by the Sahara Group, will be the second team from the state of Maharashtra after the Mumbai Indians and have enough in the bank to challenge the Mallyas and the Ambanis. Kochi, on the other hand, had their ownership liced since the beginning. But they have now settled their internal ownerships disputes and will hopefully take their seat with a player list ready in the upper pocket.
Moving onto the nitty-gritty of the auction, the eight previous franchises had an option to retain four of their players, a clause that was fully exercised by only two teams and not at all by three.
Mumbai Indians: Sachin Tendulkar, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Harbhajan Singh
Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay, Albie Morkel
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli
Rajasthan Royals: Shane Warne and Shane Watson
Delhi Daredevils: Virender Sehwag
Deccan Chargers: None
Kolkata Knight Riders: None
Kings XI Punjab: None
There is a total salary cap of USD 9 million (Rs. 45 crore) per team. But the teams that have retained any player(s) will have that limit reduced based on the price of players retained. So that means only Deccan Chargers, Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab, along with new entrants Pune and Kochi, can do a full monty.
The magnetism associated with cricket's biggest domestic extravaganza is set to have a newfound pull in the form of Caribbean charisma called Brian Lara. The 41-year-old batting legend has decided to mesmerize cricket lovers once again by being part of one of cricket's most captivating events. And what more, the West Indian run-machine is among 21 players having the highest base price of USD 4,00,000.
Here is a list of the big names and their base price:
USD 4,00,000 base price
Adam Gilchrist, Brett Lee, Shaun Marsh, James Anderson, Kevin Pietersen, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, Luke Wright, Michael Yardy, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Daniel Vettori, Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor, Graeme Smith, AB de Villiers, Mahela Jayawardene, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Brian Lara, Chris Gayle, Sourav Ganguly.
USD 3,00,000 base price
Zaheer Khan, Yusuf Pathan, Jacques Kallis, Muttiah Muralitharan, Andrew Symonds, Shaun Tait, Kumar Sangakkara, Angelo Mathews.
USD 2,00,000 base price
Gautam Gambhir, Michael Hussey, Doug Bollinger, Dirk Nannes, Eoin Morgan, Robin Uthappa, Sanath Jayasuriya.
USD 1,00,000 base price
Tamim Iqbal, R Ashwin, Morne Morkel, Ben Hilfenhaus
As far as players from Pakistan are concerned, they have again been asked to first set their house in order before asking for a bite of the cherry from their cash-rich neighbours.
However, after a scandalous past one year, IPL's image has undoubtedly taken a blow and will have to come out of the shade to spread the glitter it promised during the first three years of its inception.
But like the TV reality shows, auditions generate more interest than the original show. And the IPL players' auction, which will be aired live on an entertainment-heavy TV channel, is nothing short of an audition: bidders fight over a player and the one with most cash in the bank forces the auctioneer to shout 'SOLD'. So let the entertainment begin first, cricket will follow!
