The fourth edition of the auctions was expected to throw up some strange results but even by those standards, there were many a surprise that one would have not really thought of.
For one, it was the list of the unsold players that would have not gone down too well with some of the fans. Kolkata had made their intentions by not picking up Sourav Ganguly but when no team bid for him in the auction one was sure that it was going to have some serious repercussions.
It is not as if Ganguly cannot still be picked on the second day of the auction – there is every likelihood that he will be. However, the crux of the issue is that guys like him and Brian Lara – who was also another big-ticket player to be shown the door – are no longer the way forward for some of the teams. What makes it worse is that not even the new teams, Pune and Kochi showed any interest in either player, and that meant that the verdict had been declared.
Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman were probably lucky that they have a reputation of being malleable in the thinking of the team strategies unlike Ganguly who looks to be more difficult to be led. Still, it will be interesting to see how many games do the duo play in the tournament and for how many seasons do they continue doing so.
Then there is a question of the English guys. Not too many of the English players were selected to the team which makes one wonder whether it is their international commitments that came in the way of the selection or was it the ongoing issues between the two cricket boards – the BCCI and the ECB.
Some of the other shockers:
Ravindra Jadeja:
Okay, so he was a decent performer for the Royals before he got into the controversial issue last year and was banned by IPL. He has been a part of the Indian team as an all-rounder but has failed to deliver with the bat. His bowling has been decent left-arm spin but to be bought for a near million is a travesty. At one stage, none of the teams were bidding for him but once Kochi started bidding for him, there were no limits. In the end, Jadeja was laughing his way to the bank making a mockery of his critics.
Abhishek Nayar:
He is not even an all-rounder. He cannot bowl and his batting barely makes him a sure-shot top 11 players in the side. And yet, he managed to get more than $800,000. Wonder what the rationale was.
