IPL auction circus must stay
OPINION: Not much makes sense when you’re talking the Indian Premier League auction. But people love to talk about it.
It’s a unique, unpredictable lottery involving the world’s top cricketers, which places a dollar value on them and makes it utterly compelling. Some add an instant seven-figure sum to their annual earnings and others, mystifyingly, miss out, or go for well under their perceived value.
But ‘‘repugnant’’ and ‘‘revolting’’, as appeared in headlines this week? And ‘‘humiliating’’, in an actual quote from New Zealand’s Cricket Players Association boss, Heath Mills?
One former cricket administrator even labelled it ‘‘undignified’’ and ‘‘cruel’’, evoking images of cattle trucks arriving at Eden Park, into which our poor, unsuspecting Black Caps would be crammed then transported to a potentially horrific fate.
I find it difficult to believe our top players are such delicate flowers they need protection from this heinous crime against cricket. They’re hardened to the highest pressure of competition before a packed house. They willingly enter the lottery, knowing full well its randomness, but with a chance, however slim, they could hit the jackpot.
For starters, no players were even present at the Ritz-Carlton in Bangalore as Stephen Fleming, clad in striking traditional Indian wear, and Daniel Vettori, more casual in a team t-shirt, raised their respective paddles in competition with the other six franchises including Bollywood stars and billionaires.
Compare that to the National Football League (NFL) draft, where just over half the predicted top-32 picks sit backstage in the green room as television catches their every reaction. Some strike instant fame and fortune; others sit for hours, verging on tears, a camera in their face as they’re ignored and rival players get picked up. That seems the definition of sporting humiliation, as they cling to hope for their big break.
For the high-profile cricketers who missed out at the auction, like Martin Guptill or England captains Eoin Morgan and Joe Root, they’re among their country’s highest paid on annual retainers and match fees, also able to ply their trade in other smaller Twenty20 leagues.
Mills is a good administrator who’s fought tooth and nail for his players for 15-plus years, and continues to do so. Just seven of the 24 New Zealand hopefuls got picked up, which seemed low, and some rightly expressed their disappointment and frustration. Mitchell McClenaghan, Ish Sodhi and Guptill were unlucky; Colin Munro and Trent Boult both looked under-valued at under NZ$500,000.
Australian players were exceedingly more popular, with seven of them among the 13 instant overseas millionaires, aside from Steve Smith and David Warner who were already retained.
Mills had a point in one respect that the IPL auction has become more interesting than the tournament itself to the casual onlooker.
Thousands followed Stuff’s live coverage of the two-day auction, eager to see how the New Zealanders were valued, musing about the politics or whatever else behind the scenes, and debating the non-selections of Guptill or Sodhi, or the $1.9 million fetched by Australian allrounder Glenn Maxwell.
The IPL itself is played in the middle of the New Zealand autumn nights, on pitches of variable quality and gets only passing interest unless a Black Cap does brilliantly well or a Chris Gayle or Chris Lynn does something spectacular. During rare late night viewing moments last year some of the basic catching was woeful.
For better or worse, this IPL auction is pure sporting theatre, off the field.
And it’s professional sport, too, with franchise owners entitled to bid for who they like, whatever their motivation. There will be winners and losers, it may be hard for some to take but it won’t be career-ending. If the auctioneer could only speed things up like the highly efficient motor-mouths at the Karaka yearling sales it would be even more watchable and compelling.
Long may the circus continue.