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Franchises at IPL dissolve Aussie arrogance with shocking buyout. Pakistanis have probably, paid the price for ‘unpredictability’
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The Indian Premier League (IPL) auction was better than some of the soaps you get to watch on the telly day in, day out.
There was never any doubt about its entertainment value with an array of franchises headed by the likes of Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta (along with her beau) and Quaid-i-Azam’s great grandson, Ness Wadia bidding for the world’s top cricketers.
But the eventual price tags have come as a shock to many across the globe — although one must concede that one had expected something of this sort to happen given the Indian financial clout as the game’s movers and shakers.
The auction seemed pretty much like the cattle show most beauty pageants are. May be women can derive perverse pleasure from seeing the most macho men going under the hammer like commodities!
But to return to the ‘entertainment’, it was perversely exhilarating to see how moneyed India deflate life-sized egos and grind a bit of salt into their wounded pride by buying local talent at exaggerated price — at their expense.
Ricky Ponting’s case deserves special mention. Bought for $400,000 for a three-year period is not exactly the kind of stuff the Australian captain’s dreams were made of.
He had expected to be shown the kind of reverence deserving of a world leader but was quickly brought down to earth, leading him to wonder aloud what was behind the reluctant auction gavel.
“I have had my fair share of endorsements over the years and always felt the Indian people have warmed to me when I have been there,” Ponting said in his column in The Australian.
“Lots of things have gone through my mind in the past couple of days. Even my involvement in the Harbhajan thing but I thought: ‘Hang on, Andrew Symonds was involved in it as well.’”

Hand in glove?

Although it would appear slightly presumptuous to suggest the eight Indian franchises were in some off-hand way collaborating in trying to bring down the Australian captain for his insolent behaviour in the just-concluded Test series Down Under, an open-ended design cannot be ruled out altogether. After all, they had the money to spare if anyone of them wanted to settle scores.
And it is particularly unsettling for Ponting, whose $400,000 solo worth combined with Hayden ($375,000) and Hussey ($350,000) is still short of Symonds $1.35m package. Poor Ponting — ironically, nicknamed Punter — is trying to put on a brave face, joking about Symonds now having to buy all the drinks.
Not even the best team in the world is immune to spurts of jealousy and already rumours are in circulation that Symonds’s drop in form in the ongoing tri-series in Australia is perhaps down to his mind being on the IPL buyout.
And if ‘Punter’ can escape Aussie banter, there is just no way he can get around to some of the outrageously exaggerated sums lesser players, like rookie pacer Ishant Sharma will be getting. Sharma gets to pocket more than twice Punter’s worth. At $925,000, Sharma in fact, is the third highest buyout on the base price of $200,000.
But wait on a second. Ever heard of Manoj Tiwary? I must admit I had to google search to find out his bearings. He boasts only two years of first class cricket, and a single ODI for India where he survived 16 balls for a couple of runs. And guess what? He will pocket more than one-and-a-half times the greenbacks Punter will get!

Just desserts

So Mr Ponting, after all the sermonizing about how Pakistanis were more amenable to money than playing for their own country and then self-righteously, suggesting that your own mates were loyal to the idea of representing the country over and above everything else, this must be a bitter pill to swallow.
Save a few, the entire lot of the Australian team was up for grabs, including retired stars Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne. Many would want to forget their auction value in a hurry, Punter included.
To make it worse, players from the World Champion outfit were behind India, New Zealand and South Africa in the rank of top buyouts.
Nathan Bracken spoke his mind — and echoed probably his mates’ as well — when he said of the auction: “You want to know what you are worth and you don’t want to know your worth.”
Bracken, Australia’s opening bowler is himself even behind India’s third choice keeper, Parthiv Patel in the stakes.
Since then, a few other Australian players have also descended from their high horses and conceded despite the relatively, low price tags than what players from other countries secured, that future cricket tours needed to incorporate the T20 tamasha.
Michael Hussey has, in fact, warned — quite rightly one might add — that if the cricket boards around the world were not cognizant of the shifting sands, players would be constrained to choose fast money over country.
Full marks for honesty — does that explain why Hussey is the most consistent Test batsman after The Don and even peerless in his nearly 58 average as an ODI willow-wielder as well?
But removed from the wallowing Aussies, one can’t, but be amazed, at how the Indian franchises are looking after local interests, even at the cost of losing such winnable imports.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni would literally laugh all the way to the bank with his $1.5 million package. Cut to the chase — and he will have plenty of those in T20 terms as well — he will be getting a whopping $90,000 per outing (he is slated to figure in 16 over 44 days). At this rate, you will only see a proliferation of “Dhoni marry me” banner pleas to the bachelor across India.

BOOM OR BUST: Shahid Afridi is the highest paid
Pakistani but still a far cry from his known worth

As for Pakistanis, they too, were underdone but perhaps, in their case, it may have to do with their unpredictability both as a team and players.
One says this because if reputation were a benchmark, surely few, if at all, can hope to match Shahid Afridi’s destructive abilities in this format of the game. At $675,000 he will become the highest paid Pakistani in the draw.
But for Shoaib Akhtar, it has been a Ponting revisited: hot air, little to show for the money. However, the Australian captain might get a headache here to know that the pompous Akhtar — who’s more out than in — will still get $25,000 more than him.