IPL teams: Are they really worth the millions?
By Swapan Mitra
The blows of the descending hammer have fallen silent. The brouhaha over the IPL auction is over. Clubs have chosen their cricketers and bought them with millions of dollars. It’s now useless to engage in endless debates over who deserved how much. A commodity had been put up for sale, and the HIGHEST bidder acquired it. It’s as simple as that. So what if a Manoj Tiwari fetched more price than a Ricky Ponting? It’s not cricket - it’s about the market, stupid!
The club owners are certainly not into the IPL to raise funds for building free houses for the poor. Most of them are hard-boiled businesspersons; even the glamorous Bollywood stars in the fray understand pretty well what ‘bottom line’ is all about. They certainly had their own logic and yardsticks for the choices they made and prices they offered. Now, is there a recognizable pattern that emerges out of their choices? More important, how good are the teams they have been able to cobble together spending millions of dollars? Let us try to find out.
To be honest, no clear or sharply defined pattern was visible in the formation of the IPL teams. Except perhaps that the emphasis was more on Twenty20 skills than anything else. This only can explain why bits-and-pieces players often got preference over more renowned specialist cricketers. In Twenty20 cricket, a prize catch is someone who can both bat and bowl (or keep wickets) with a fair degree of competence, and is fit and sprightly on the field. Possession of multiple skills is a key determinant in this form of cricket. That’s why a Dinesh Kartick scores over a Mahela Jayewardene, or a Glenn McGrath loses out to a Farveez Maharoof.
However, this logic does not tell us how Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly or V V S Laxman can fit into this form and some of them even accorded the status of an ‘icon,’ especially when none of them has even found a place in the Indian ODI team. Is it because of the captive fan base they enjoy in their respective cities? Perhaps yes. Mind you, the presence of an ‘icon’ means a huge expenditure for a team as he gets 15% more than the next highest paid cricketer of the team.
Again, does controversy help bring in the moolah? It seems so given the exorbitant prices Andrew Symonds and Harbhajan Singh have managed to fetch. The availability factor might also have played a role in some top players fetching abnormally low prices. Perhaps that’s why Ponting or Matthew Hayden didn’t get the royal treatment in the IPL because they won’t be available for a considerable part of the competition if Australia’s tour of Pakistan does finally materialize.
(Still, even after recognizing the typical demands of Twenty20 cricket and other compulsions, we find quite a few purchases in the IPL auction that completely defy any sense of logic or rationality. That, however, is a different story.)
Let’s now have a look at the eight IPL teams and find out what they promise for us.
Spending the highest amount of money in the IPL auction, Chennai purchased Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Muttiah Muralidharan, Matthew Hayden, Jacob Oram, Stephen Fleming, Parthiv Patel, Joginder Sharma, Albie Morkel, Suresh Raina, Makhaya Ntini, and Michael Hussey. The team is a fine combination of youth and experience. Although Ntini is not in the best of form, Morkel looks good enough to deliver with the new ball. With the likes of Hayden, Fleming, Dhoni and Oram the batting packs a lot of power. The wily Muralidharan is there to weave his magic also. (Rating: Good)
Hyderabad pocketed players such as Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Herschelle Gibbs, Shahid Afridi, Scott Styris, VVS Laxman, Rohit Sharma, Chamara Silva, RP Singh, Chaminda Vaas, and Nuwan Zoysa. Although they look like having one star too many, the balance of the team is unlikely to be affected. With so many explosive batsmen at their disposal, selection of the final eleven might be a problem. Imagine Gilchrist, Symonds, Gibbs and Afridi firing together! Vaas and Singh should lead the new ball attack. (Rating: Good)
Delhi bought Virender Sehwag (icon), Daniel Vettori, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Asif, AB de Villiers, Dinesh Karthik, Farveez Maharoof, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Manoj Tiwary, Glenn McGrath and Gautam Gambhir. Unlike Hyderabad, they don’t have too many stars. But on its day, the combination can be a real handful for the others. The new ball pair of McGrath-Asif is interesting. If Sehwag is in form, he can destroy any bowling in the world. (Rating: Average)
In the Kolkata team, we find Sourav Ganguly (icon), Shoaib Akhtar, Ricky Ponting, Brendon McCullum, Chris Gayle, Ajit Agarkar, David Hussey, Ishant Sharma, Murali Kartik, Umar Gul and Tatenda Taibu. There is no dearth of firepower in batting with Gayle and McCullum around. Ganguly and Ponting provide the experience (although not necessarily in the Twenty20 form). India’s pace sensation Sharma is a smart acquisition. There should be reasons to cheer if Mishbaul Haq’s inclusion in the team is confirmed. (Rating: Good)
Mumbai got Sachin Tendulkar (icon), Sanath Jayasuriya, Harbhajan Singh, Shaun Pollock, Robin Uthappa, Lasith Malinga, Dilhara Fernando and Loots Bosman. They have perhaps the most explosive opening pair in the IPL in the form of Jayasuriya and Tendulkar. Pollock and Malinga, with their contrasting bowling styles, might trouble the opposition. Uthappa is an attacking batsman as was seen in the Twenty20 World Cup. (Rating: Good)
Bangalore opted for performers, and not stars. Their collection includes Rahul Dravid (icon), Anil Kumble, Jacques Kallis, Zaheer Khan, Mark Boucher, Cameron White, Wasim Jaffer, Dale Steyn, Nathan Bracken and Shivnaraine Chanderpaul. The pace bowling attack comprising Zaheer, Steyn and Bracken looks strong enough. Kallis and White are good all-rounders. The batting department with Dravid, Kallis and Chanderpaul is solid, but lacks a big hitter. (Rating: Good)
Mohali bought Yuvraj Singh (icon), Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Brett Lee, Sreesanth, Irfan Pathan, Ramesh Powar, Piyush Chawla, Simon Katich and Ramnaresh Sarwan. It is a good collection that blends youth with experience. The batting will depend heavily upon Yuvraj and the two Sri Lankans. Lee and Sreesanth will form a good combo of pace and swing, while Pathan will perform the role of an all-rounder. (Rating: Average)
Jaipur, for some inexplicable reasons, purchased some players who can by no means be called young and fit for Twenty20 cricket. They chose Shane Warne, Graeme Smith, Younis Khan, Kamran Akmal, Yusuf Pathan, Mohammad Kaif, and Munaf Patel. It will be interesting to see if the likes of Warne and Kaif, long out of international cricket, can deliver the goods with the help of Smith, Khan and other teammates. They must pray that Munaf’s lethargy does not rub off on others. (Rating: Poor)
Spinners were rarely viewed kindly in limited-over cricket. So were batsmen like Dravid, who never believed in trying to hit each delivery for a six. But it has been proved time and again that even the shorter version requires all varieties of cricketing skills, and Twenty20 is no exception. It’s not all about big hitting – there is enough room for subtlety as well. So we have all kinds of cricketers with all kinds of skills divided among the eight IPL teams. Let’s wait to see which one of them can finish on top.
