‘Don’t judge ability by prices at IPL auction’

KOLKATA:TRUST Sourav Ganguly to tell it like he sees it. The procedure of the IPL auction has already been trashed and on Wednesday, Ganguly said the outrageous prices cricketers fetched there have no bearing on their abilities.

“Don’t judge players by the amount of money they get in the IPL,” he said at the launch of 20th edition of the Cricket Year Book.

“Hashim Amla went unsold and he has 54 international hundreds while Ishan Kishen gets over ~6 crore having played only Ranji Trophy,” said Ganguly. That wasn’t all. Jaydev Unadkat, who has little international experience, fetched ~11.5 crore and Manish Pandey goes for ~11 crore, he said.

“The IPL has no rationale, it is a different format and you have to look at it that way. It is about demand and supply and can’t be a yardstick to determine a player’s value,” said Ganguly.

The trigger for Ganguly’s comments was a question why Wriddhiman Saha, inarguably India’s best wicket-keeper, was bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad for ~5 crore, and Dinesh Karthik fetched ~7.4 crore from Kolkata Knight Riders.

After another former India skipper Mohd Azharuddin said India could win the ODI series in South Africa, Ganguly said the teams are evenly matched.

“After winning the Johannesburg Test, I would say the series is 50-50 but what goes in India’s favour is that AB de Villiers will be missing the first three ODIS.”

The Wanderers Test, Ganguly said, was played on a wicket he has never seen in six visits to South Africa as a player. Ganguly called the wicket an accident.

“But I thought I could win when they won the toss because I knew the wicket would deteriorate. In 2006, the same thing happened. We won the toss, batted first and won the match.”