IPL: All about one of India's first unicorns, what to expect from auction

It will be IPL's 15th season this April and this would be the fifth mega-auction, apart from the 10 earlier ones where only some players took part. That makes it one every 365 days

Virat Kohli hadn’t played a ball in international cricket then, chartered accountants across the country were still trying to decipher the intricacies of the Value Added Tax, ex-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had made his last public speech just about a year ago and the euphoria of Mahendra Singh Dhoni lifting the World T-20 trophy-–after Santhakumaran Sreesanth caught Pakistan’s Misbah-ul-Haq off the bowling of Joginder Sharma-–was like fresh paint.

That was April 2008! India’s billion baby, one of its first Unicorns, Indian Premier League (IPL) was born. And, it’s been one roller-coaster after another. Shane Warne’s Rajasthan Royals won the inaugural edition, surprising, when Lalit Modi was in India and was the Czar of cricket in India. Then, the 2009 tournament was shifted to South Africa because it clashed with the General Elections. Then came the Dhoni-Chennai Super Kings dominance in 2010-2011 to paving way for Shahrukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders led by Member of Parliament from Delhi, Gautam Gambhir shepherding the side to the podium. Those were the sunny days but the clouds were hovering around the corner.

The ugly saga of spot-fixing followed soon in 2013, one still doesn’t know what happened to that, who were those eight or twelve players whose names were given to the Supreme Court in a sealed envelope even if the Royals and Chennai Super Kings were suspended for two seasons.

To some, that was bizarre land!

But, cricket still prevailed and there are the bashers who say this is more of a ‘dog and pony show’ than cricket, the truth is it’s a part of life. Six titles for Rohit Sharma (five as Mumbai Indians captain in 2013, ’15, ’17, ’19 and ’20 and 2009 with the Deccan Chargers and none for Kohli after 14 seasons with the Royal Challengers Bangalore, that’s life.    

It will be the IPL's 15th season this April and a pit-stop in Bengaluru for the auction on Saturday and Sunday would put the chess board pieces in place. It would be the fifth mega-auction, apart from the 10 earlier ones where only some players took part. That makes it one every 365 days. A total of 27 players have been retained by the franchises with Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi Capitals and Kolkata retaining the maximum of four that are allowed. 590 (370 Indian and 220 foreigners) would go under the hammer over the weekend, 161 out pf them on Saturday.      

K L Rahul will captain the newest franchise, the Lucknow Super Giants, and they would pay him a whopping Rs 17 crore for it while Hardik Pandya would don the skipper’s hat for the other newbie, Gujarat Titans for Rs 15 crore. Among IPL synonyms this season would be Rohit and MI, Ravindra Jadeja and CSK and, Kohli and Bangalore – all for Rs 15 crore, and Dhoni and CSK (Rs 12 crore) Rishabh Pant and Delhi (Rs 16 crore), Andre Russell and KKR (Rs 12 crore), Sanju Samson and Royals (Rs 14 crore). But this is IPL, that’s not much money, isn’t it?

A franchise can spend up to Rs 90 crore and could have anywhere between 18 to 25 players. Each player can choose his base price between Rs  2 crore, Rs 1.5 crore, Rs 1 crore, Rs 75 lakh, Rs 50 lakh, Rs 40 lakh, Rs 30 lakh and Rs 20 lakh.

Moreover, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Mohammed Shami Ravichandran Ashwin, South Africa’s Faf Du Plessis, Quinton de Kock and Kagiso Rabada, Australia's David Warner and Pat Cummins and New Zealand's Trent Boult are the Marquee players with a base price of Rs 2 crore and the auction is expected to open with them. 

As the day is all about crunching the number system, here’s some food for thought. In 2008, Kohli had just captained India and won the Under-19 World Cup, and Bangalore paid $30,000 (Rs 13,05,300, dollar at 43.51) for him.