At many levels, the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction doesn’t make sense. There’s no way Sameer Rizvi, an untested uncapped player who has played just two first-class matches for Uttar Pradesh, should be bought for ₹8.4 crore by the Chennai Super Kings when the same team paid ₹4 crore for India regular in Shardul Thakur. There’s no way a team should have splurged ₹24.75 crore for Mitchell Starc or ₹20.50 crore for Pat Cummins given their track record in the tournament. There’s no way Travis Head, Australia’s hero of the recently concluded ODI World Cup, should be bought for ₹6.8 crore while 28-year-old pacer Spencer Johnson goes for ₹10 crore. Illogical? Yes. But it is perhaps this very lack of logic that makes it an exciting, if slightly bewildering, watch.
IPL teams try to explain the madness with the term “auction dynamics” but for many aspiring players, the willingness of the franchises to invest in talented, if untested, youngsters is a gift. In sports, one usually takes time to get to the top. The journey is built on hard work, consistency, and moments of genius. But the IPL auction offers a shortcut — a chance to show your talent on a big stage because somewhere you caught the eye of a persuasive scout. It may seem unfair but at the same time, it counts for little if the player can’t make the chance count. Enough players have not been able to make this jump count over the years but then others such as Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya or even Rinku Singh show that perhaps there is, after all, a method to the madness. It isn’t Moneyball but maybe sometimes it’s just someone’s lucky day.
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