Comments on: IPL Structuring

By: Vinay

Vinay — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 08:02:54 +0000

I think BRC were clearly gunning for KP right from the beginning. And Mallya was gonna snare him up at any cost. In a way, a good ploy cos he’ll get a captain material in KP as well. Swapping Zaheer is a big mistake, though Uthappa is a good addition to the team. BRC is losing out on a good bowler. Wonder who they’ll get to fill in for him, cos Mallya hasn’t bought any quality bowler. I am happy atleast that Mallya didn’t waste money like KKR… 12times the reserve price for a ok-ok bowler… Atrocious

By: skimpy

skimpy — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 11:27:04 +0000

overall the auction seems quite crazy. 600m for Mortaza, and no takers for Jerome Taylor and Shakib is really funny. None of these buggers bidding know anything about cricket, I think

By: skimpy

skimpy — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 11:26:51 +0000

overall the auction seems quite crazy. 600m for Mortaza, and no takers for Jerome Taylor and Shakib is really funny. None of these buggers bidding know anything about cricket, I thinkm=

By: RG

RG — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 05:58:05 +0000

ha ha .. Duminy goes to MI as I guessed.. but he didn’t save too many bucks though

By: Harish

Harish — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 10:09:41 +0000

I totally agree. BRC might overspend if they get KP. But I wanted to figure out which IPL teams will gun for KP? The ones that are low on batting firepower – and going by last season’s performance, the ones that struggled to get big scores in the 20 overs were BRC and MI.
DC also struggled but it had a very poor bowling attack and its batting was quite good. Especially Gilly and Rohit. I trust them to do well with a reliable buy like Voges. Someone who will score runs consistently without being too flashy. They certainly wont gun for KP.
Royals are a strong candidate to snare KP from Mallya given the obvious Warne-KP connection and I also believe they might need KP to shore up the middle order. If you remember, last season they had SOLID starts from Smith, Asnodkar, Pathan and Akmal but they missed a good number 4. Jadeja and Niraj Patel are not good enough to play at 4. I think KP should be a good fit at Royals as well.
Given this rationale – I expect strong bids from MI, Royals and BRC. I think Royals might get outbid by BRC given Mallya’s risk appetite. I think MI might transform into a powerhouse more than BRC if they get KP. It depends where they set their upper limit. BRC even if they get KP might not be the team to beat.

By: skimpy

skimpy — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 12:45:16 +0000

let’s see. rumours are that they’re going to go mad for pietersen. i’m not sure it’s such a good strategy.

By: skimpy

skimpy — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 12:44:28 +0000

it was definitely a win for MI.
but it wasn’t a win for BRC. to give up zaheer for uthappa (remember uthappa gets paid wtice as much as zaheer)

so it’s win-loss. not win-win. win-win woudl’ve happened at a nonzero fee

By: Allen

Allen — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 13:22:26 +0000

BRC have consistently been the dumbest team!

Hope they do something useful in this auction at least!

By: RG

RG — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 05:00:42 +0000

It was a win-win for MI as they want someone to replace Polly. Zak was a great deal for them given that he plays for Mumbai and has a great rapport with Sachin. Among all the IPL teams, I think they got the best performances from the local boys (kulkarni, nayar and even their wicket keeper in couple of matches). I think MI will try to snap up Duminy. He doesn’t have much star power, but he can give solidity to the middle order, win a few matches on his own and save MI a few bucks. He would also be available for the entire season.

I think BRC’s strategy has been bad right from the start. They might want to look at selling Kallis with some extra money (just like the bhajji-powar swap u talked about). Even otherwise, if they buy KP, the quota of 4 foreign players would be taken by Ross Taylor, KP, Bracken and Steyn/Boucher. Kallis would again be the costliest bench warmer who would play in the absence of other foreign players.

I think they are counting on Nathan Bracken to deliver for them this time around. While he may not be as incisive as Zak, he is very economical and too good at the death.

By: Anon

Anon — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:29:08 +0000

Few questions dude-

1. How did these franchises go about recruiting? I’m guessing they hired people with work-ex,so what industries did they look at?

2. The IPL off season is a lot longer than conventional leagues (its a 6 week league whereas other leagues only have a 6 week break), so what do these consultants do in the off season?

“There were rumours of the Mumbai Indians negotiating a swap with Kings XI Punjab for a swap between Powar and Harbhajan, which reportedly got stalled because Harbhajan earns so much more than Powar.”

3. Is this because they felt Bhajji wasn’t worth it or because they have some restriction on how much they can spend on the entire squad? Rumour has it Bhajji isn’t too happy with the setup at MI,so is there any scope for Punjab to take advantage of this and negotiate a new contract with him for the remaining two seasons?

4.”It would also be interesting to see if some version of the Bosman ruling is to operate in the IPL”

I thought the current contracts are null and void at the end of the third season. Unless there’s a first right to refusal clause somewhere in the contract.

5.”I’m sure that had the BRC asked for a fee from Mumbai Indians in order to release Zaheer in exchange for Uthappa, the Indians would’ve definitely paid up.”

Is there a provision for that in the current rulebook? So using the football funda, Zak would have got 10% of the transfer fee.