We went for bidding with sincere intention: Nita Ambani

Mumbai Indians team owner Nita Ambani today said they went for bidding with "serious intention" of buying in the IPL players' auction and added the franchise wanted to back those who delivered last year.
"The team went for bidding with the sincere intention of buying players, not otherwise. Our intention was always to bid for players, but for our bad luck we could not have some of them after we had researched on them for last seven months," she said.
Australia's veteran all-rounder Shane Watson emerged as the biggest draw going for a whopping Rs 9.50 crore but it was young uncapped all-rounder Pawan Negi who turned heads with a mind-boggling deal of Rs 8.50 crore to be the costliest Indian buy in an otherwise low-key auction here today.

Responding to a query on why players like Mike Hussey and Tillakratne Dilshan were not considered for bidding in spite of their good show in Big Bash League, Ambani said they looked at the gaps which were supposed to be filled in some categories after having retained her important players for the season.
"If you are talking about Mumbai Indians, we retained the 19 players and then went about filling the gaps - what we needed in our team. So, we actually looked at the gaps and found adequate player and filled those gaps," she said.
IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla said as this was not a mega auction, the franchise owners filled the gaps.

"This is not a mega auction. They were filling the gaps. According to their scheme of things each franchise picked them (players) up. That does not mean they are bad and their performance have gone down," he said.

Asked about losing Dwyne Smith and Glen Maxwell among others, Ambani said they have learnt to stick to players and were happy to have two players - Hardik Patel and Jaspreet Bumrah - who have been picked up in the Indian squad.
"I think every year is a new learning and this year we have learnt to hold on. We have a Hardik and a Bumrah who are our domestic finds and now playing for team India which is a great pride for all of us," she said.

"If you see Mumbai Indians, their core strength - they all remained the same for many years now," she added.
Ambani said the team wanted to back those players who delivered last year.
Asked if the country is witnessing a new trend of unknown players making big money than their established counterparts in IPL, Shukla said the beauty of this league lies in the fact that even these unknown players get opportunity to perform.
"This is the beauty of this auction. All the franchises have done good work on domestic circuit and that is the strength of the IPL that all unknown players get an opportunity to perform. That is reason why IPL was launched," he said.

Akash Ambani also said the team management scouts talent from all formats of the game by holding camps.
"We scout talent from all formats whether it is first class, ODIs and T20s league matches. We have Rahul Sanghvi, Robin Singh and John Wright, who scout for talents and based on their feedback held a camp in January," he said.
Akash said scouting makes him understand the attitude of players and the capacity to handle pressure.