Towards the latter half of the first day of the IPL auction, during a press conference with Stephen Fleming being the interviewee, a journalist pointed out one particular facet concerning the way the Chennai Super Kings contingent was shaping up.
“Your team seems to be going for experienced, tried-and-tested candidates, as opposed to someone fresh,” he remarked. He was ostensibly referring to the fact that not one among those anointed to be the Men in Yellow for this season so far was bereft of international experience in this format. ”Your thoughts on that?”
This was the Chennai head coach’s response. “This year, we have really valued experience. Also, around the world, experienced players have been doing well. Young players come and go, so you have to be lucky. MS (Dhoni) and I are both on the same wavelength that experience counts. It was one of our directions to give our side some experience.”
The Kiwi’s explanation was in sync with the team-building ethos that Chennai seemed to be exuding. But, the rest of the franchises were treading a narrative that was quite the opposite. After the end of the first day of the auction, the other seven contingents had between them a set of 20 players sans exposure to the highest level of cricket.
Yet, all these men had been festooned with value tags worth at least a crore. Sixteen of them had been valued at three crore or more. And, thirteen of those men had progressed through the domestic rungs of our nation. That the IPL — along with the various state-level avatars the event has spawned over due course of time — is viewed as one among the sandboxes that serve the purpose of winnowing talent meant for the international arena.
It doesn’t take a detailed course in cryptography to decipher the subtextual criterion that needs to be fulfilled in order to realise the aforementioned notion: placing belief on the shoulders of those with lesser experience and work towards bettering them.
Delhi Daredevils — who too invested `7.4 crore in Prithvi Shaw, Rahul Tewatia, and Vijay Shankar — head coach Ricky Ponting too subscribes to that line of thought.
“We expected that quite a bit of money would be spent in the back half of today (auction slots for uncapped players) just by looking at the names that were presented. I think tomorrow will be very much the same. Pretty much all the teams have made sure that they’ve kept a nice purse for tomorrow as well,” explained the Australian.
“It’s not just about this season. You can keep these guys in the system for a few years. That’s what our philosophy was when we got some of these uncapped guys for our team. We just wanted to try and unearth the next great Indian talent. So we pick up a couple of them, and hopefully, in the right environment, we can improve them as players.”
rahulravi@newindianexpress.com