The Indian Premier League player auction is a peculiar entity. Every year, the story is more or less the same – fantabulous sums of money, windfall for players on the fringe, unexpected valuations and at least one bidding war based mostly on vibes instead of merit.
The player auction was seen as the most effective way to implement free market trade and put the true value of a player next to his name. But after almost two decades of IPL, that has not been the case.
Take the last round of major auction, which took place at the end of last year in Saudi Arabia. There, Kolkata Knight Riders dumped a big chunk of their purse – almost $3 million – on Venkatesh Iyer. If you are wondering ‘Venkatesh who?’, you are not alone. Kolkata thought it was OK to let go of title-winning Shreyas Iyer, and future India captain Shubman Gill before that, and put all their money on a player who barely creates a blip on the national radar. Iyer was released by the franchise this year.
Lucknow paid more than $3m for Rishabh Pant, even though he is not a proven leader in T20s and has a below average record with that bat in the shortest format. But that still made some sense as he is a star captain and match winner for the national team, albeit in other formats.
The IPL is littered with extravagant deals and glaring omissions. You would think that after so many years in the business, team owners would know to at least avoid obvious bad calls. But the world of IPL is a strange one.
More of the same this year?
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