Strategies in IPL Auctions!

Hi Guys,

It has been a long time since I started writing. The fact that this is my 200^th post is quite amazing. As the days have went by, the number of posts has decreased proportionately. There are two reasons behind this. One is that I have got busy in life and second one is I think quite seriously before writing each post. For the past few days I have been of the idea of writing an E-book. I have been doing some research on publishing e-book. Anyway, I am not a person who can write long. So, I am still in confused thoughts. Let’s see, how things go.

In this post, I’m going to write about the IPL auction that took place yesterday. Like the previous versions of IPL auctions, this edition too had many surprises. Each team followed a different strategy. Some players who are very young and unknown became very rich by the end of the day.

Thinking a little on why some teams just keep rising the bids, two things come into my mind. One maybe the Ego factor, where two rival teams fight for a single player. In that case, the past performance or talent of a player doesn’t come into play and the teams enter into Irrational Bidding. The other factor might be a trap. If one team is so desperate on getting a player and other teams come to know of it, they might keep increasing the stakes of the player and make the other team pay high for him. This way the spending capacity of the team goes down and the other teams can concentrate on their wish list.

Some teams have got too many big names in their squad. From the past records, the teams that is strong on paper struggles at the end. The main reason is that at the end of the day, the teams (or Captains) don’t know who to pick and who to leave. The second is the team spirit gets decreased and individual talents come into play. Some teams like Rajasthan Royals have stuck to a 21 member squad instead of acquiring more players and creating problem.

The latest auctions were better compared to the previous versions where only the names of the players went into consideration. This time, the teams have considered the availability of the players, their recent performance and also their past performance in IPL.

Yet another strategy adapted by many teams is that of getting ‘Mystery Players’. A player who has played fewer matches is under exposed and the other teams find it difficult to handle the player. It has been the case in the past too. A new batsman or a bowler comes in and the opposition doesn’t know about the player’s particular style. Once the mystery players’ styles are exposed, their value goes down. The traditional proverb ‘Make hay while the sun shines’ goes well with these players.

A few well deserved players have missed out the chance. It is always a Zero Sum game with the franchises having a fixed wallet. At the end of the day, it boils down to the players’ form during the IPL, the team spirit and attitude and the Captain’s cleverness.

The players’ performances have never been proportional to the money they get. It has always been the case and I believe that it will be the case this season too. So the bottom line is that a better method has to be generated in which a player’s performance is linked with his performance.

Happy Reading!!!