IPL auctions: Clamour for uncapped players on Day-2

While the first day of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2014 cricket player auctions saw franchises go gaga over established players, the second belonged to uncapped players, who had proved themselves at the domestic level.

The pick of the players was Karn Sharma, snapped up by Sunrisers Hyderabad for a Rs 3.7 crore, 12.5 times his base price of Rs 30 lakh. The left-handed batsman and leg-break bowler plays for Indian Railways in the Ranji Trophy and was in the Sunrisers squad in the 2013 season, too. While Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Daredevils opened the bid for Sharma, it was a close fight between Sunrisers and Kings XI Punjab, until the latter gave in and Hyderabad retained the all-rounder.

Others recording handsome bid amounts owing to their Ranji performance were Kedar Jhadav (Rs 2 crore; base price Rs  30 lakh) and Rishi Dhawan (Rs 3 crore; Rs 20 lakh). While Delhi Daredevils used its right to match to retain Jhadav, Dhawan was picked by Kings XI. Jhadav is the highest run-scorer in the Ranji this year, while Dhawan has taken the most wickets in the tournament.

Kings XI used its right to match to retain Gurkeerat Singh for Rs 1.6 crore.

Among foreign uncapped players, Beuran Hendricks (Rs 1.6 crore) and Ryan Ten Doeschata (Rs 1 crore) were picked by Kings XI and Kolkata Knight Riders, respectively, with Doeschata at his base price.

The second day also saw re-bidding of unsold players. No team was ready to bid for former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene at his base price of Rs 2 crore. Dwayne Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Martin Guptill and Cameron White, too, weren’t bought.

During the re-bids, former New Zealand captain Ross Taylor was acquired by the Daredevils at his base price, in a lone bid.

The price for Karn Sharma was more than of marquee players who weren’t bought at Rs 2 crore (Mahela Jayawardane, Angelo Mathews, Samuels, Brett Lee, etc), as well as White (Rs 1.5 crore, the base rate) on Wednesday.

By the end of the second day, Daredevils and Royal Challengers Bangalore had exhausted their salary caps. In contrast, Rajasthan Royals was left with Rs 5.5 crore, despite retaining five players before the auctions and buying 20 new ones. Raghu Iyer, chief executive, Rajasthan Royals, said, “We did consider the domestic performance of players. There was a lot of focus on that; the team management, led by Rahul Dravid and Zubin, were working on that. We are pretty happy with the team we have got. A lot of the players were considered because of the potential Rahul saw in them. Many such as Tambe have been bought because of their potential. We also have a crack team that will work with them to elicit performances and results.”

On the controversy around Yuvraj Singh’s auction on the first day, auctioneer Richard Madeley, who had presided over all IPL auctions so far, said, “I am honoured to have been invited from England to conduct IPL 7 auctions. My job is not dissimilar to an umpire’s job. There are times when I am asked to make decisions and in the situation yesterday (on Wednesday), I made a decision I will stand by; it was a difficult decision. But that is my job. I think I made a right decision. And, (I) will give that (same) decision if I was asked today. If this auction would have taken place today, the player could have gone to any other team, not just RCB (Royal Challengers Bangalore).”