Indian Premier League (IPL)

[BSharma]

Bhusan, the people of Kolkata passionately support their teams and turn out in large numbers --- most international tournaments used to be full.  Now, if you are stressing on the second part on not accepting mediocrity, then what are the spectators to do?  They can just stay home.  However, at least my Bengal (30-15 years ago) was passionate about sports.  Staying home was not an option.  Improving the quality of the game is more of a job of the administrators.  The spectator has a decision whether to buy or not to buy.  In monopolistic markets like what we have for sports, the spectator decides to buy even if the product is not great skills-wise.  At least, they are treated to great rivalries and exciting matches even if the skills level is low (for football).

I have been a Mohan Bagan fan since 10 years of age and closely followed the heroics of an attacking Chuni Goswami and a defender Jarnail Singh,and other MB players in my younger days.  The rivalry between MB and EB has been fierce and could match many other rivalries between two teams in some countries.  I got to set foot in the MB stadium in 1962 during my first and only visit to Kolkata and my parents relented when I insisted that I wanted to see the field where MB played.  Unfortunately, there was no match on that day and I saw an empty stadium. 

Other than the Indian cricket team and some club teams in football, few or if any other teams have big fan following in India.  Although it is the duty of the club owners or administrators to ensure that the team has quality players and develop young talent, most teams in India do not do so and the fans also do not insist on development of players, better facilities, good coaches, etc.  It appears that EB is not doing well this year and I have not heard much hue and cry from the fans, but can you imagine the fury of the fans of Yankees, UT Texas Longhorns (football), football clubs in UK, etc if their team was not doing well?  They would demand a change in the coaching staff or donate money (to college teams) to improve recruiting, etc -- be proactive to improve the team.  I do not think that the fans of leading club teams in baseball, soccer (Europe), American football and basketball would accept mediocrity in their team.

[Sandeep]

How will they upgrade the stadiums in 2 months (IPL is scheduled to start in April)?? Impossible!

And Prasen, Hyderabad and Chennai teams would be worst hit as almost the entire Ranji teams of both the cities are playing for ICL

[jaydeep]

Rahul Dravid will lead Vijay Mallya-owned Bangalore team in IPL.

[Sandeep]

VVS Laxman and Sehwag could get iconic players status. They will be representing HYD and Delhi respectively if put in that elite bracket.

Sehwag anyways, would have costed a lot but with the Iconic status Laxman is going to get benefited immensly. If he gets the iconic player staus, the owners of Hyderabad team (Deccan chronicle group) has to pay him 15% more than the highest bid.

[gbelday]

Money, politics and (IPL) cricket!!

The cash in the cash cow
http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/magazin ... 35800.html

"In Delhi, speculation has already begun as to whether a senior Union minister's son will be signed on as one of the local franchise's four "junior cricketers". The speculation, it must be emphasised, has little to do with the young man's talent. It is about the political leverage it could give the corporate house backing the franchise. In the end, this may only be idle gossip in a cynical city."

[prasen9]

And Prasen, Hyderabad and Chennai teams would be worst hit as almost the entire Ranji teams of both the cities are playing for ICL

  Sandeep, you are aware that Bengal had Ganguly and Pankaj Roy as the only two players who played in tests substantially and if you add the transplants Doshi and Arun Lal.  That is over the history of cricket.  That would be about the same if you consider the states associated with Kolkata.  Mumbai has so much depth that their second team would adapt and be fine in a year or so if their top players left, Kolkata does not.  I do not know about the depth of Hyderabad and Chennai but Hyderabad produces enough good players to support two top-tier teams in AP and Hyderabad.  Chennai, I don't know how their bench strength is.  I am not saying that they will not be hit, but Chennai has Badri and Hyderabad has Ravi Teja.  Kolkata will possibly choose Manoj Tiwari, Ranadeb Bose, SS Paul and perhaps Laxmi.  Actually, not that bad.

And this is 2020 anyway, if you can hit for 2-3 overs you may be a good player.

[prasen9]

I do not know what the bidding will be like and what they can achieve in $5 million.  However, if the bidding becomes excessive, I would try to pick up value players like Stuart Clark, Daniel Vettori, etc.  Vettori may be a premium player.  Another good bowler who may give very good value may be Bracken.  Of the major players, I would do high bids for Afridi.  RP Singh should be a good value.  Similarly on the batting side.  I think it is important to construct a team that wins on the field rather than pick players to get a lot of media.  I hope the teams have scouting teams that have given serious thought to the "draft".

[puneets]

I'm sure there would be someone scouting the under-19 World Cup players too.

[prasen9]

Sangwan, anyone?

[Sandeep]

Yes, a lot of players from U-19 team will play the IPL. I think all 11 players will get a chance.

Between, Michael Clark, Johnson and Haddin has decided not to join IPL! I think the $5 million cap is what driving away players. There is only certain amount that each team can spend and I guess Australians are not seeing enough monetary return for their time spent.

I think this $5 million limit is ridiculous.

[suresh]

I suspect that  Cricket Australia  has asked them to stay away and not the salary cap.

Suresh

[PKBasu]

Well, 13 Australians are participating -- which is more than enough. The younger lot probably will have many more opportunities to make the big bucks from the IPL, but the older players are going to love the opportunity to bolster their pension funds.

I can't be too bothered with this tamasha (auction shauction...). Let the actual cricket begin, and we shall see if it is truly competitive or a bit of a sham.

[puneets]

There was a time not too far ago when all the players were clamoring for more rest to avoid the so-called burnout. The extra cash that they would have earned from one international match had very little marginal utility for them (esp when compared to the loss of rest time and recuperation). Now those very players are keen to forgo the breaks and rake in the IPL riches. I'm not blaming players like Gambhir or Utthapa etc, but players like SRT, Yuvraj, Dhoni (who play both tests and odi) were the ones who used to complain to BCCI about playing too many matches. Why aren't they resting now ? What happened to the burnout issue ?

Clarke's move to opt away from IPL may have been motivated by other personal reasons, but it's a brave decision. I don't like Clarke at all, but I'll have to respect him for this choice that he made.

[jaydeep]

Former Australian coach John Buchanan has been confirmed as the coach of the Kolkata team with Tom Moody to guide Mohali.

The players keep all the money that is paid for them at the auction. Adam Gilchrist and Indian Twenty20 captain M. S. Dhoni are likely to snare the highest bids.

Jaydeep.

[jaydeep]

Here adding list players for respective teams which r going to added at end of every round of bidding.

Teams for IPL matches -

Jaipur - Shane Warne (US$ 450,000), Graeme Smith (US$ 475,000), Younis Khan (US$ 225,000), Kamran Akmal (US$ 150,000), Yusuf Pathan (US$ 475,000), Mohammad Kaif (US$ 675,000), Munaf Patel (US$ 275,000)

Chennai - MS Dhoni (US$ 1.5 million), Muttiah Muralitharan (US$ 600,00), Matthew Hayden (US$ 375,000), Jacob Oram (US$ 675,000), Stephen Fleming (US$ 350,000), Parthiv Patel (US$ 325,000), Joginder Sharma (US$ 225,000), Albie Morkel (US$ 675,000), Suresh Raina (US$ 650,000), Makhaya Ntini (US$ 200,000)

Mumbai - Sachin Tendulkar (icon), Sanath Jayasuriya (US$ 975,000), Harbhajan Singh (US$ 850,000), Shaun Pollock (US$ 550,000), Robin Uthappa (US$ 800,000), Lasith Malinga (US$ 350,000), Dilhara Fernando (US$ 150,000)

Bangalore - Rahul Dravid (icon), Anil Kumble (US$ 500,000), Jacques Kallis (US$ 900,000), Zaheer Khan (US$ 450,000), Mark Boucher (US$ 450,000), Cameron White (US$ 500,000), Wasim Jaffer (US$ 150,000), Dale Steyn (US$ 325,000), Nathan Bracken (US$ 325,000)

Hyderabad - Adam Gilchrist (US$ 700,000), Andrew Symonds (US$ 1.35 million), Herschelle Gibbs (US$ 575,000), Shahid Afridi (US$ 675,000), Scott Styris (US$ 175,000), VVS Laxman (US$ 375,000), Rohit Sharma (US$ 750,000), Chamara Silva (US$ 100,000), RP Singh (US$ 875,000), Chaminda Vaas (US$ 200,000), Nuwan Zoysa (US4 110,000)

Mohali - Yuvraj Singh (icon), Mahela Jayawardene (US$ 475,000), Kumar Sangakkara (US$ 700,000), Brett Lee (US$ 900,000), Sreesanth (US$ 625,000), Irfan Pathan (US$ 925,000), Ramesh Powar (US$ 170,000), Piyush Chawla (US$ 400,000)

Kolkata - Sourav Ganguly (icon), Shoaib Akhtar (US$ 425,000), Ricky Ponting (US$ 400,000), Brendon McCullum (US$ 700,000), Chris Gayle (US$ 800,000), Ajit Agarkar (US$ 330,000), David Hussey (US$ 675,000), Ishant Sharma (US$ 950,000), Murali Kartik (US$ 425,000), Umar Gul (US$ 150,000)

Delhi - Virender Sehwag (icon), Daniel Vettori (US$ 625,000), Shoaib Malik (US$ 500,000), Mohammad Asif (US$ 650,000), AB de Villiers (US$ 300,000), Dinesh Karthik (US$ 525,000), Farveez Maharoof (US$ 225,000), Tillakaratne Dilshan (US$ 250,000), Manoj Tiwary (US$ 675,000), Gautam Gambhir (US$ 725,000)