IPL4: Youth dominated experience

So, IPL 4 auction is over and the number game amazed people a lot this time. Unlike previous versions of IPL, this time Indian cricketers are everywhere in the auction ceremony. Gautam Gambhir (1), Yusuf Pathan (2), Robin Uthappa (3) and Rohit Sharma (4) are purchased over INR 50M. Gambhir, being the top auctioned player, was purchased by KKR at 12 times of his base rate. KKR also purchased Indian hitter Yusuf Pathan (Rs. 9.4 crore) and S. African Mr. reliable Jackques Kallis (Rs. 5.3 crore). Below is the list of players auctioned and purchased in the league.

Besides the auction, Some franchise retained some of their previous players. VVS Laxman also had a comeback on the first day, was purchase at 19 M INR by Team Cochhi. Brand players like Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag were already retained and were not the part of the auction.

Including these, 12 cricketers didn't participated in the auction are listed besides.

IPL 4 auction facts

• Total 353 cricketers of all over the world take part in the auction.
• Among these players, 74 were from Australia, 53 from S. Africa, 49 from India, 39 from England, 30 from Newzealand, 28 from West Indies, 18 from Bangladesh, 8 from Zimbabwe and 1 each from both Ireland and Netherlands.
• 241 players weren't purchased by any franchise.
• In the purchased 112 players, 46 are Indians.
• Three indian players who weren't been purchased are Saurav Ganguly, VRV Singh and Wasim Jafar.
• Young and inform players were preferred on Senior players. Brand and youth was the key this time.
• Daniel Christian, very unfamiliar to the cricket fans, a very unpopular cricketer was purchased on second day at 4.1 M INR. He received the 18 times of his base rate.
• KKR owner Shahrukh Khan said that they purchased cricketers on the advice of specialists, who were not in favor to purchase Ganguly for team.
• Domestic Players are very angry with the league Uncapped player Policy. Under this policy, the players who don't have enough experience won't take part in the auction ceremony. They will be contracted on a fee basis, instead. Manish Pandey, batsman from Uttarakhand, refused to sign the contract with RCB as he was unsatisfied by the fee amount offered to him.

Nobody purchased Ganguly and Lara

In the auction, the great batsman Brian Lara and one of the most successful Captains in Indian Cricket, Saurav Ganguly found no purchaser. This clearly hurt the prestige of both the cricketers. By this, one thing became very clear that franchises are prepared to invest for the youngsters for the experienced players. Chris Gayle is also one of the not-purchased players. One thing is very clear by this that franchise owners are not seeing the experience, but they are focusing on the brand and youth values of cricketers in auction. Lara, Ganguly and Jayasurya had already signed the retirement from International Cricket in the past, unlike Adam Gilchrist, they were not been able to attract any customer. In fact, most players with no customers were resulted unsuccessful to regulate or maintain their brand value.

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