IPL is a lottery, so is the players auction! Even Patrick James Cummins and fellow Australian Glenn James Maxwell won’t credit their fortuitous windfall on Thursday to only their amazing skills.
The auction has always thrown up surprising bids and stunning buys. But for a mini-auction, what happened on Thursday is incredible. Someone might soon connect these obscene prices to question the economic slowdown.
The night before the auction, India players had little worries about their IPL fate. But some of their opponents might have spent a sleepless night after losing the second ODI of the tour, at a venue not far away from Kolkata.
The auction overshadowed a keenly-fought second clash of the three-match leg. India may have won by a big margin, but for a fair distance the game looked like going the way the first match went in Chennai, with West Indies in a position to clinch the series.
Batsmen from both sides indulged in mad hitting. And in such games, a bowler should have been the Man of the Match. Though Rohit Sharma’s big hundred deserved the award, nobody, including Rohit himself, may have grudged Mohammed Shami getting it after turning the match on its head with two successive deliveries. He removed the rampaging Nicholas Pooran and then the big-hitting Kieron Pollard.
Pooran and Shai Hope, for whom there were no takers at the auction, gave the Indian attack some tense moments. At 192/3 in the 30th over, chasing 388, they were on top. Then the crash, five wickets tumbling for 18 runs, and it was all over.
The young, new-look West Indies are sending out a warning to the top teams, telling them to not to go by their rankings. They may be ranked seventh in Tests, ninth in ODIs and 10th in T20Is, but they can surprise any team on their day. The only problem is their unpredictability, like the Pakistanis.
Back to IPL. Both Cummins and Maxwell were certainly stars. At the mini-auction, team owners knew how much money they had and whom they actually wanted.
Cummins is an acknowledged international all-rounder, and no wonder the three top teams were hell bent on snatching him. Eventually, Kolkata Knight Riders got him. More than one national daily thought that team owner Shahrukh Khan had to break the bank to buy Cummins.
Kolkata had to battle it out with Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Capitals. Come to think of it, they entered the fray only when the other two raised the tag to Rs 14 crore. If either Bangalore or Delhi had stretched it more, Cummins could have made a new record.
The Australian players suddenly seemed to be the toast of the IPL, after speculations that the franchises may not go for them. Those rightly cited past experiences of the Australian board withdrawing fast bowlers on the pretext of managing their workload ahead of a major series.
The next best successful bid was that of Maxwell. Despite missing the last edition and being not too successful in the previous seasons, the all-rounder went for Rs 10.75 crore to Kings XI Punjab, the team that was unhappy with his performance for them in recent years.
Another Australian millionaire is pacer Nathan Coulter-Nile (Rs 8 crore), snapped up by Mumbai Indians. West Indian Sheldon Cottrell — who should be a big hit for his mannerisms and salute after taking a wicket — went to Punjab for Rs 8.5 crore. Cottrell’s compatriot Shimron Hetmyer, who had a poor season last year with Bangalore, is now with Delhi, getting Rs 7.5 crore.
Among the 33 Indians, mystery spinner Varun Chakaravarthy continues to be a hot buy. Kolkata spent Rs 4 crore on him. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ravi Bishnoi will have to prove they are worth Rs 2 crore, ten times a jump from their base price of Rs 20 lakh.
The teams were mostly filling the vacant overseas spots, so not many Indian were making a big splash. The only player to come anywhere near the million-dollar mark was leg-spinner Piyush Chawla. He was surprisingly bought by Chennai Super Kings for Rs 6.75 crore, despite Chennai having a successful leggie in Imran Tahir.
As many as 13 Australian players got in, followed by seven of England, four of West Indies, three of South Africa and one each from Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Some regulars from New Zealand were not entertained his time.
(The writer is a veteran commentator and the views expressed are personal. He can be reached at sveturi@gmail.com)