Cricket experts and cricket fanatics who participate in IPL fantasy cricket were glued to their TV sets on 19th December 2019 as the biggest auction in the field of sports took place in Kolkata. Eight franchises indulged in a fierce battle of bidding and tried to cover all their bases before the tournament begins.As many as 971 cricketers, including 713 Indians and 258 overseas players, went under the hammer in this year’s IPL auction. This was the biggest auction so far in the history of IPL, considering the number of players who made themselves available for the top premier T20 league in the world.
Not only has the tournament gotten intense over the past 13 years, but all the eight franchises have indulged in an intense battle on the day of the auction as well. Owners and their respective support staff make sure that they don’t leave any stone unturned to get the players that they are targeting. Teams have also started recruiting people who could scout domestic talent and add value to their squad.
Since inception, franchises have been focusing heavily on current international players or overseas players on the day of the auction. But there has been a shift in the trend thanks to players like Pravin Tambe, Surya Kumar Yadav, Manoj Tiwary, Robin Uthappa, Mandeep Singh & Piyush Chawla, where the teams now keep an eye on the domestic players and their performances. Domestic players have really made their presence felt and showed their value for money in the last 4-5 years of the tournament. Teams now don’t hesitate in shelling out big bucks on domestic and under-19 players and have the confidence that they can compete with the big boys of international cricket.
Auctions have also thrown surprises every year with few marquee players going unsold during the bidding process. The reason could be either high base price of the player or teams preferring to go for domestic players who have experience playing in the Indian conditions and have done considerably well in the domestic tournaments.
Talking about some numbers, in this year’s auction, a whopping amount of Rs.140.30 crores was spent by eight franchises with 62 players managing a contract from one of the eight franchises. Pat Cummins became the most expensive overseas player in the history of IPL when KKR acquired him for Rs. 15.50 crores. Whereas, Varun Chakravarthy grabbed eyeballs on becoming the most expensive domestic uncapped Indian player when he was sold for Rs. 4 crores to KKR, 13 times his base price. (Please click on the link to see the most expensive players of IPL 2020).
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