IPL 2010 Auction Review Pakistan Players Ignored

A Tie -Breaker Bid For Kieron Pollard, Return of ICL Cricketers To IPL and  all 11 Eleven Pakistani Players being ignored by the 8 IPL Franchises were the major highlights of the 3rd IPL Auction which was held in Mumbai On Tuesday, 19th January, 2010.

Till yesterday speculations were ripe that Current Pakistan T20 Skipper Shahid Afridi will be the hottest pick in this 3rd IPL Players Auction & the 8 franchises will bid tough to get him in their squads, But Surprisingly it was the Hard Hitting All – Rounder from Trinidad and Tobago,  Kieron Pollard who walked away with this honour as Mukesh & Nita Ambani owned Mumbai Indian’s bought out Pollard for a huge sum of USD $750,000 only after they quoted the top bid in a historical Tie- breaker bid round in which along with Mumbai Indians, Pollard was aggresively sought after by Kolkata Knight Riders, Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Shane Bond – The Top Speedster from New Zealand who marks his foray into the Indian Premier League after decamping from the ICL, was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders for a sum of USD $750,000 which they won in a silent Tie-Breaker Bid Round along with Deccan Chargers.

IPL Auction 2010 Sold Players List

  • Sold players: Kieron Pollard (Mumbai, USD750,000+), Shane Bond (Kolkata, 750,000+), Kemar Roach (Deccan, 720,000), Wayne Parnell (Delhi, 610,000), Mohammad Kaif (Punjab, 250,000), Eoin Morgan (Bangalore, 220,000), Damien Martyn (Rajasthan, 100,000), Justin Kemp (Chennai, 100,000), Thissara Perera (Chennai, 50,000), Adam Voges (Rajasthan, 50,000), Yusuf Abdulla (Punjab, 50,000

Losing Bond to Kolkata Knight Riders did not dent the hopes of Deccan Chargers as they decided to buy another young promising fast bowler – Kemar Roach of the West Indies for  a staggering amount of USD $7,50,000. The same amount as Pollard and Bond. Roach’s claim to fame is the series Down Under in Australia where he consistently troubled Ricky Ponting with short pitched deliveries, Deccan Chargers will be hoping that he spearheads their opening pace attack alongside the Indian Left armer R.P Singh & they might replace him in the place of his West Indian Team mate Fidel Edwards who unfortunately did not have too much of a good outing for the Chargers in last year’s IPL, which eventually was won by Deccan Chargers.

Another Young Cricketer alongside Roach who was sold for a much higher price than the base price was South African left arm fast bowler – Wayne Parnell,  he was bought by Delhi Daredevils for a price of USD $610,000. Eoin Morgan, the England batsman, was picked up by Bangalore Royal Challengers  for USD $220,000. Mohammad Kaif, the only Indian up for auction, went unsold in the first round of bidding but was later signed up by Kings XI Punjab for $ USD 250,000.

Ex International & Former ICL Stars Justin Kemp and Damien Martyn from South Africa and Australia were sold at their base price each since barring 2 franchisees, no other franchisee bid for them & eventually Kemp was bought by Chennai Super Kings & Damien Martyn by Rajasthan Royals, both were sold at their base price of USD $ 100,000.

Thissara Perera was the Only Sri Lankan who was bought by  Chennai SuperKings for USD $50,000, Adam Voges makes his IPL Debut with Rajasthan Royals who bought him for USD $ 50,000, and Yusuf Abdulla’s Contract was again bought by his previous team – Priety Zinta & Ness Wadia owned Kings XI Punjab for a sum of USD $ 50,000.

Only three of India’s Under-19 players, priced at Rs. 800,000 each, were eligible to play in the IPL and they were chosen by a draft system. Bangalore picked U-19 captain Ashok Menaria, Deccan went for Harmeet Singh and Mumbai opted for Harshal Patel.

But The Major Controversy of the entire IPL 2010 Auction was the fact that not a single Pakistani player of the 11 on the auction list – including several of the World Cup-winning team – were completely ignored by all the franchises, ironically the 1st player whose name was called in the Auction was Pakistan T20 Skipper Shahid Afridi, but to a major surprise – No Franchisee bid for him, The same fate greeted other promising cricketers from Pakistan including Umar Gul, Mohammad Aamir, Sohail Tanvir,  Abdul Razzaq, Rana Naveed and Imran Nazir. None of the 8 franchises were keen to buy any Pakistani Player into their squads.

Afridi was shocked and in an interview with the Press stated – “The way I see it, the IPL and India have made fun of us and our country,” he said. “We are the Twenty20 world champions and for me the attitude of the franchises was disappointing. I feel bad for the Indian people who, I am sure, wanted to see us play in the IPL this year.”

Abdul Razzaq, the allrounder, said politics and sports should be kept separate. “They have basically tried to hurt our cricket and image and this is most disappointing because I believe there should be no politics in sports,” Razzaq was quoted as saying by PTI. “In the end it is the IPL which has lost out because the fact is our players have star value and are the best in T20 cricket.”

Sohail Tanvir, the best bowler in the inaugural IPL and an instrumental part of the Rajasthan Royals’ title win, wondered why so much effort was put into getting the clearance from his country’s board and government if none of the franchises wanted to buy Pakistan players.

“They mean to say none of our players are good enough to be in the IPL,” Tanvir said. “I am sorry to say the franchises have taken a decision not based on cricketing sense but on political grounds which is a shame and has hurt the image of the sport.”

Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, said the apprehension over the availability of Pakistan players was the main reason for them being unsold. “Franchises are no more ready to spend $7-8 million on someone who won’t be available for the tournament,” he said. “It not only exhausted their purse but also wasted slots. They want only those players who would be available for the tournament. They are spending money and they want to get the results.”

Shilpa Shetty, the co-owner of Rajasthan, echoed Modi’s words. “We were not convinced about their availability and that’s why we did not want to take any risk,” she said. “If someone is not going to be available, why bid for him.” She also said that though they had watched Tanvir over the past year, they were looking for a batsman.

The co-owner of Kings XI Punjab, Ness Wadia, had a different take, pinning the non-sale of Pakistan players to the lack of open slots for the franchises – 67 players were auctioned for only 13 vacancies. “I do not think that the Pakistan players were ignored purposely,” he said. “Many Australian players were too not auctioned. In fact, last year we suffered because of Australia.”

“Given the current relationship between India and Pakistan, we didn’t want to take a risk,” said a franchise official. “Imagine if we filled up two slots [out of 10] with Pakistani players and were then told that they couldn’t travel, or that their security couldn’t be guaranteed.”

The Fact That All the Pakistani players were ignored by the IPL franchises despite being the current T20 Champions proved that the Current Volatile relations between India & Pakistan, and Politics played a major role which as a result proved that IPL as a major sporting event was marred by Politics, and no franchisee was willing to take their chances of buying Pakistan Players at huge prices only to lose them in the end because of a political reason.

The End Result – Cricket Fans might suffer and they will surely miss seeing the current T20 Champions and talented stars like Afridi, Gul, Razzaq & Aamir playing in this year’s IPL.

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