Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Dada is Priceless

In IPL Auctions which took place on last weekend, Gautam Gambhir was sold for 11.04 crore, Out of form and out of India’s WC probable team Irfan Pathan was sold for 8.6 crore and Australian Domestic Player Daniel Christian went for more than 4 crores. But the main highlight of the auction was that former Indian and Kolkata Knight Riders’ captain Sourav Ganguly remained unsold as he did not find any takers in IPL Auctions.

Sourav Ganguly, who retired from International Cricket in November 2008, played all the 3 seasons of IPL for Kolkata Knight Riders and led the side in the 1st and the 3rd edition. KKR is the only side which has not played semi final of the IPL. The team played well in the season 3 but could not make it to the semis because of the net run rate. But Sourav Ganguly’s performance was good and he was the highest run scorer for his side by scoring 493 runs in 14 matches at an average of 37.93 and with the strike rate of 118.66. He scored more runs than the players like Mahela Jayawardene whoc scored 2 centuries in IPL-3, Andrew Symonds, Saurabh Tewary, Yusuf Pathan, Robin Uthappa etc. But Cricket is a team game and an individual can’t win a game for you evetrytime. The same thing happened at KKR as Ganguly did not get enough support from his other team mates. Well some might say that strike of 118.66 is not good but it is wrong because when you have the players like Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum, David Hussey, Manoj Tewary, etc a team needs someone who can play steadily at the other hand. I feel that as of now he is a better T20 player than Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and even Mohammad Kaif. I am sure his exclusion from the IPL is not because of the Cricketing Reasons.

One of the owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders and the one who thinks that he is the face of the IPL, Shahrukh Khan has said that he will find a good role for Dada in Kolkata Knight Riders. I don’t know about the supporters outside Kolkata, but in Kolkata people support KKR because of Sourav Ganguly and not because of SRK. If KKR has registered maximum number of merchandise selling, that is because of Sourav and not because of Shahrukh. May be ego clash between SRK and Dada could have caused this as both of them carries King’s attitude but SRK should not have interfered because Ganguly has a better cricketing mind than SRK. Some say that Sourav has not played Cricket for a year now and that could be the reason but he did play in one of the Ranji matches and was supposed to play in the shorter format of the domestic games. Even the players like Chris Gayle and Sanath Jayasurya remained unsold but that is because of availability issues and because of being foreign player. Even the former Indian captain Kapil Dev has said “Lot of other reasons are there. I don't think merely on cricketing basis, he is not there. It's not on purely cricketing basis (his exclusion),".He also said “I always felt that Ganguly should be the captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders otherwise he should not be playing. Because of his nature, commitment, determination and the way he works with the team or what he did to the Indian team, this all makes a lot of difference.” I guess all these things mentioned here suggest that Dada’s exclusion is not because of the cricketing reasons. He still has to offer to the team in IPL.

If anyone still doubts, I guess he or she doesn’t need to check his bating statistics but watch the 2 spectacular catches that he had taken in last year’s IPL.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RffEQsXdLZA&feature=fvsr


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7qxN7VRqbs


Friday, January 7, 2011

350 Players on sell in IPL Auctions starting tomorrow

If Graham Onions is in IPL auction, he should choose his reserve price on the basis of per kg. He stands to make a lot more that way :-). Well this there are not only more players than before but there are now 10 Franchisee as well. All of them will be fighting out at Bangalore on this weekend to bag the players of their choices.

The franchisees had the option to retain the four players of their choice but the team like Kolkata Knight Riders, Deccan Chargers and Kings XI Punjab decided not to use this facility. But the other teams used this option.

Mumbai Indians: Sachin Tendulkar, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, & Harbhajan Singh

Rajasthan Royals: Shane Warne and Shane Watson

Delhi Daredevils: Virender Sehwag

Royal Challengers: Virat Kohli

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay, Albie Morkel

Well, some would say that MI should have retained Zaheer Khan but they could not as the teams had the option to retain 4 players only but they would be trying desperately to buy back Zaheer Khan. RR surprises everybody by not retaining T20 specialist and a superb performer in IPL Yusuf Pathan. That decision doesn’t look understandable to anyone. Daredevils also retained Sehwag only and did not retain captain Gambhir and inform A.B.Devilliers. Royal Challengers also surprised by not retaining the likes of Ross Taylor, Kallis, Kevin Pieterson and Dale Steyn. They have retained only Virat Kohli who might become the captain of the RCB as well. Chennai could have retained Muralitharan but they decided to retain Albie Morkel as he could have become and expensive. KKR, the only IPL team which is yet to make it o the semi-finals of IPL did not retain any player of the team. Well, Kolkata is a city which is driven by Sourav Ganguly may not support KKR if Dada doesn’t play in the team. SRK must be knowing this after IPL-2 fiasco. I personally think that KKR would buy Sourav Ganguly but it might be not as costly as 4.11 crores of rupees and Sourav Ganguly wont be a that costly buy. They also did not retain the players like Chris Gayle, McCullum, David Hussey and Angello Matthews. Deccan Chargers also did not retain players like Gilchrist, Gibbs, Symonds and Rohit Sharma. While Kings XI Punjab did not retain the players like Sangakkara, Jayawardene, and more importantly Yuvraj Singh.

There are many players for whom the top businessman would not hesitate to give any amount of money. These players are like Brendon McCullum, Chris Gayle, Dale Steyn, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, James Anderson, Mitchell Johnson, A.B.Devilliers, etc. Few of the teams would also be interested in buying the players like Sourab Ganguly, Jaques Kallis, Rahul Dravid and Brain Lara who is set to play in the IPL at the age of 41. I feel that Sahara Pune Warriors may show their interest in Sourav Ganguly because of his relationships with the top management of SAHARA Group. All the teams except Rajasthan Royals, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Superkings will be looking to buy the players who can be effective leaders as well. Going by that the players like Ganguly, Graeme Smith, Gautam Gambhir, Kumara Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Daniel Vettori, etc will be in demand. T20 is not only about hitting 4s and 6s but it also requires technique so the players like Dravid, Collingwood, Styris, Kallis,etc will be in demand.

There is a total salary cap of USD 9 million (Rs. 45 crore) per team. But the teams that have retained any player(s) will have that limit reduced based on the price of players retained. So that means only Deccan Chargers, Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab, along with new entrants Pune and Kochi, can do a full monty.

The magnetism associated with cricket's biggest domestic extravaganza is set to have a newfound pull in the form of Caribbean charisma called Brian Lara. The 41-year-old batting legend has decided to mesmerize cricket lovers once again by being part of one of cricket's most captivating events. And what more, the West Indian run-machine is among 21 players having the highest base price of USD 4,00,000.

USD 4,00,000 base price

Adam Gilchrist, Brett Lee, Shaun Marsh, James Anderson, Kevin Pietersen, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, Luke Wright, Michael Yardy, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Daniel Vettori, Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor, Graeme Smith, AB de Villiers, Mahela Jayawardene, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Brian Lara, Chris Gayle, Sourav Ganguly.

USD 3,00,000 base price

Zaheer Khan, Yusuf Pathan, Jacques Kallis, Muttiah Muralitharan, Andrew Symonds, Shaun Tait, Kumar Sangakkara, Angelo Mathews.

USD 2,00,000 base price

Gautam Gambhir, Michael Hussey, Doug Bollinger, Dirk Nannes, Eoin Morgan, Robin Uthappa, Sanath Jayasuriya.

USD 1,00,000 base price

Tamim Iqbal, R Ashwin, Morne Morkel, Ben Hilfenhaus

My Darkhorses or Underdogs:

Alviro Pieterson, Dirk Nannes, David Hussey, Aaron Finch, Dwayne Bravo, Graeme Swann, Eion Morgan, Tamim Iqbal.

The live telecast of the auction will be on SET MAX from 10 am.