Which are the most awaited events in the annual calendar of Indian cricket? Till the close of the last century, the final of Ranji Trophy, the game that determined the champion state in the country was the highpoint of domestic season, while the selection of the national squad for an international championship was the most awaited event outside the playing arena. But the increase in popularity of limited overs cricket and a surfeit of international matches brought about a sea change in the outlook and attitude of players and fans towards domestic circuit. With the advent of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2008 and the glitz and glamour surrounding it, this has become the marquee event of Indian cricket. The auction of players before commencement of a new edition of IPL has taken on the role of curtain-raiser for this championship and this is undoubtedly the event outside the playing arena that both players and fans await most eagerly.
One needs to get a bit of understanding about the process of auctions in the IPL to appreciate how it functions. In the first place, there are two types of auctions in IPL- mega and mini. In a mega auction, franchisees are allowed to retain only up to a maximum of five players before the process starts. In a mini-auction, there is no restriction on the number of players a franchisee can retain. Mega auctions are held once in four years and the last one was conducted before IPL 2022. The auction on Tuesday in Dubai is a mini-auction.
Before every auction, franchisees are required to give details of the players that they are planning to retain. In other words, the players they choose to release will be available on the auction floor for other franchisees to pick up if they are willing to play and their services are required. Each team is allowed to have 25 players in their ranks, out of which a maximum of eight can be of foreign origin. In addition to this, there is also the restriction that not more than four overseas players can form part of the playing eleven for a game.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) mandates that every player desirous of taking part in the IPL should submit a base price, along with required approvals from his home association, before the auction process starts. This can be done by cricketers who have played for country - capped players - as well as those who have not done so - uncapped ones. Before commencement of the auction, the BCCI releases the list of all players who will go under the hammer. This list will include the ones released by the franchisees as well as those who are attempting to make it to one of the sides on their own.
As per list released by the BCCI, there are 333 cricketers available for the auction, of whom 116 fall under the capped category. As many as 214 among the said 333 are Indians, with foreign players constituting the remaining 119. There are 10 franchisees taking part in the auction and the number of slots available with them amount to 77. In other words, a total of 77 cricketers will be selected by the franchisees for their sides based on bidding at the auction.
This year, however, action commenced even prior to the auction with Mumbai Indians (MI) acquiring Hardik Pandya, the championship-winning skipper of Gujarat Titans (GT), through a one-way trade between the two franchisees. This trade, which takes place outside the auction mechanism, is essentially an agreement between the teams seeking the services of the player and the franchisee owning him, whereby cricketer is released by the latter to the former on payment of a transfer fee. This fee is equal to what the franchisee owning him had paid for the services of the player involved in the first place. In this instance, Pandya also stands eligible for a percentage of the transfer fee paid by MI to GT. In similar moves, Cameroon Green moved from MI to Royal Challengers, Bangalore (RCB) and Romario Shepherd from Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) to MI.
Each franchisee is allowed a total purse money of Rs 100 crore to buy the players in auction. The amount available with each franchisee at a mini-auction depends on the value of those who they chose to release from their side. For the present auction, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have the highest number of places to fill in their squad -12 - for which the amount available with them is Rs 32.7 crore. Incidentally, the transfer of Hardik Pandya boosted the kitty available with Gujarat Titans to Rs 38.15 crore, the highest among the sides ahead of the auction. The franchisee with the smallest purse is LSG with Rs 13.15 crore, which they can spend on getting six players.
The list of cricketers who are available for auction makes interesting reading. There are 23 players who have a base price of Rs 2 crore. Among those falling under this category are Travis Head, the Aussie hero who piloted his side's victory in the recent ICC World Cup final, Harry Brook, the emerging batting super talent from England, Steve Smith, the Australian batting great, and Gerald Coetzee, the fast bowler from South Africa. Also present in this category are Mitchell Starc, the Aussie left-arm speedster making a comeback to the IPL after a gap of eight years, along with his fast bowling parnters Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood. Incidentally, Brook was released by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) after they had spent Rs 13.25 crore in getting him in last year’s auction.
There are thre Indians who have a base price of Rs 2 crore - Shardul Thakur, who turned out for India in three matches in the World Cup, and fast bowlers Umesh Yadav and Harshal Patel. Thakur and Yadav were released by KKR while RCB chose not to retain Patel. Jofra Archer, the England fast bowler who has been battling injury-related problems, was released by MI while Ben Stokes and Joe Root chose to give the tournament a miss to manage their workload. Two cricketers whose fortunes will be actively followed by followers of the game are Rachin Ravindra and Azmathllah Omarzai, who both performed exceedingly well during the recently concluded World Cup. Two interesting retentions are those made by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for Mahendra Singh Dhoni, thus indicating that the former Indian captain will play in IPL 2024, and by Delhi Capitals (DC) for Rishabh Pant, though the wicketkeeper-batsman has not recovered fully from injuries sustained in a car accident.
The most important factor that determines the bids on auction floor are the requirements of the franchisees. To understand this, one has to know the needs of individual franchisees for firming up their sides. KKR have released maximum number of players, which included almost their entire fast bowling line-up and hence they will be trying to pick up at least quality two fast bowlers from abroad and a spin bowling all-rounder. CSK will be looking for players to fill the gaps left by Ambati Rayudu, who has retired, and Stokes, while GT will try to a get a replacement who can fill into the shoes of Pandya. SRH will be on the lookout for replacements to Brook and Adil Rashid while Punjab Kings (PBKS) and DC will seek players who can bring better balance. Both Rajasthan Royals and LSG have less than Rs 15 crore in their kitty and may prefer getting less expensive utility players. Though both MI and RCB strengthened their sides in the pre-auction trade and appear balanced, they will also be seeking to plug a chink or two in their armour through acquisitions on the floor.
Mini-auctions in IPL are known to throw up many a surprise. The last one saw purchase of Sam Curran by PBKS for an all-time high price of Rs 18.5 crore, which made him the highest paid player in the history of the championship. Green came a close second when he was bought by MI for Rs 17 crore. Curran could not set the stage on fire with his performances either with the bat or the ball, scoring only one fifty and picking up 10 wickets in 14 matches. However, Green proved his worth for his franchisee by coming good with the willow, hitting one century and two fifties in a total tally of 452 runs, besides being a useful bowler. Neither Curran nor Green were hot properties in international cricket circuit but the vagaries of the auction system and the desperate need of some franchisees to fill up some of the much needed slots combined to push up their prices. It will be interesting to study the progress of auction process in Dubai and find out cricketers who fetch a high price.
The IPL has also acted as a stage for experimenting new ideas and innovations. One such innovation tried out during last season was the concept of “impact player”, wherein a cricketer, though not part of the playing eleven, can be introduced into the game after it commences. This gives the captains the option of utilising the services of players from a pool of 12. Impact player, unlike the conventional substitute, can bat and bowl and be brought in at any point when the game is in progress, such as fall of a wicket, start of an innings, end of an over etc. The player in whose place the impact player is introduced shall take no further part in the match. Seventy-four cricketers donned the role of an impact player during IPL 2023 and reports have appeared in media stating that Pant might make an appearance in the coming edition of IPL in this role. Despite the manifold advantages claimed by IPL Governing Council, there were hardly any instances where use of impact player by a side had a bearing on the result of the match. IPL 2024 will, in all probability, decide whether this concept will stay on for winning wider acceptance or be pushed aside as another “fanciful idea”, whose time has not yet reached.
(The author is a former international cricket umpire and a senior bureaucrat)
