As expected, demand for English cricketers was high at the IPL auction held in Kochi on December 23rd. Nearly a third of the total amount spent during the auction went to his eight British players brokered by various franchises.
The price at which a player is sold during a player auction does not necessarily reflect its usefulness to a particular franchise. This has been confirmed in the last 15 player auctions. The 16th Auction in Kochi on December 23rd was no exception, but with some surprises. I will introduce part of the auction.
The biggest wallet isn’t the most expensive purchase
Just like in 2021, the teams with the biggest wallets available are back without making the highest bids. In 2021 Punjab his Kings had £53million in funding, but it was Rajasthan Royals who paddled for £16.25m to sign Chris Morris.
In Kochi, Sunrisers Hyderabad was a popular favorite posting a record bid with his prize of Rs 422.5 million (his Rs 100 million higher than his closest competitor). But it was the Punjabi Kings who ran it, and he spent £18.5m to ensure Sam Curran returned to his first IPL outfit. Sunrisers didn’t even get one of the top four picks at auction, aside from top buys. Harry Brooke, his most expensive pick, was number five on the list.
The Sunrisers, mainly Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, suffered from tactics that inflated the cost of Mayank his Agarwal and Brooke early in the auction. Sunrisers, who spent more than £21 million on acquiring these batters, could not spend as much on an all-rounder as other franchises. The Mumbai Indians, Punjab Kings and Chennai Super Kings got valuable catches. Get these young guys at any cost
Smaller auctions usually had higher bids. This trend continued in Kochi. The top three bids of £18.5m (Sam Curran, PBKS), £17.5m (Cameron Green, Mich.) and £16.25m (Ben Stokes, Super Kings) are the previous highest bids on the auction table That’s it. .
Had Sunrisers not spent nearly half their wallet on procuring their first player, the all-rounder could have topped his €20 billion mark for the first time. His three bids for Curran, Green and Stokes, combined with Nicholas Poulean (Rs 1.6 billion, Lucknow Supergiants) and Harry Brooke (Rs 1.325 billion, Sunrisers) surprised some maybe. first auction. MI owner Akash Ambani stressed that the green purchase fits well with the franchise’s vision of investing in youth, and overall it’s clear why the franchise chooses certain players. did.
For example, the Supergiants went all out to Poulenc for the finisher role. Pooran isn’t a surprise factor, he’s also a single-handed IPL winner. Likewise, MI and the Super Kings took note of him as one of the top three all-rounders, and the Super Giants were happy to be quiet spectators throughout most of the rest of the auction.
However, the fact that the franchise has spent so much money on multiple players shows that when clubs focus on a particular talent, they are willing to loosen their wallets on him. The big issues are:
Is expensive shopping worth the price tag?