VIVO IPL 2021 – Mega Auction – TATA IPL 2022
IPL is coming back to entertain the Indians in India after two continuous seasons in UAE. The COVID Pandemic made sure that India cannot host the tournament. Even though the 2021 edition did see 40% matches in India, the COVID cases pushed the tournament and took it to UAE. Since then many things have changed. The World’s best and biggest cricket league IPL faced political tensions after the Galwan Valley attack by the Chinese Soldiers. VIVO was removed as the sponsor in 2020 but came back as the main sponsor again in 2021. Come 2022, VIVO is permanently removed as Title Sponsor.
One of the best things to happen for the IPL is the Indian brand picking the sponsorship. TATA is a highly respected company in India and will pay 670 crores as sponsorship. The sum of 670 crores is 200 crores higher than what VIVO promised to pay. This deal will mean a win-win situation for both IPL and TATA. As per the deal, TATA will remain as the main sponsor even for the 2023 edition…
The Mega Auction witnessed Mega Action…
600 players went under the hammer for the 15th edition of IPL. With two new teams added to the tournament, there is fresh excitement. The Lucknow Super Giants and the Gujarat Titans are the two new teams in the IPL from this edition. The auction was a perfect curtain-raiser and a super-duper show before the main event in April. The Auction had started on Saturday and concluded in the late evening on Sunday 13th February. Unfortunately, Hugh Edmeades the chief auctioneer collapsed right after 2 hours of auction action due to hypertension. He was replaced by the Indian Charu Sharma and he did a decent job and conducted an auction.
Auction always brings surprises, disappointments, happiness, pain and has its share of strategic decisions. While the teams are bound by their strategies and tactics, every player thinks he is good to be picked by at least one team. But in the end, not every player gets picked. Because all that the teams need is a maximum of 25 players which is 220 players excluding the retained players.
The new teams have done extremely well at the auction and picked exciting players. The same was true for the older teams too. All this is judged as per the teams on the paper and nothing of that sort matters on the game day. So, on paper teams like SRH & RR look the weakest. That’s because these teams lack the players who have match-winning performances under their belt. But as I said, nothing matters than the perfection of the skill on the match day.
But… is the much-spoken IPL Auction a fair process of building squad?
Currently, the process that is practised in the IPL is the auction process. The teams are given a limited amount and the limit right now is 90 crores. The teams are expected to buy a minimum of 18 players and a maximum of 25 players within this budget. As per the rules, each team can have 8 overseas players and the rest of them will be Indian players.
I have a strong opinion and this is completely mine. With due respect to the IPL committee and the other people, the Auction system is turning out to be boring. Yes, there is transparency and every purchase of the player happens under the watchful eye of BCCI and IPL. But this is in a way damaging the teams and of course the players. I feel the auction system of purchasing players should be done away with. We have to move forward to the system of drafting by introducing a ‘transfer market’.
This isn’t a new method. It is already in practice in the major football leagues in the world.
Following should be the changes made to the squad building system:
- Do away with the Auction system and bring in the concept of the transfer market.
- Let the player and the team decide the salary to be paid.
- Don’t have unnecessary restrictions on the purse size. This will bring skewness and create a huge gap between highly paid and low paid players.
The teams are bound to field in the best team. It can not be always made within the number of players that the IPL decides. Many teams in the current auction did come out and complained about the lack of players matching their needs. This is a serious concern. If a franchise is unsatisfied it will bring down the confidence in the teams. If the IPL doesn’t act in the best way possible, the IPL may go back to 8 teams. To save the IPL’s brand value which is now hovering around 6 billion dollars and to quickly take it to 10 billion dollars, creative and unique decisions are important.
There are already rumours of bringing the ‘drafting’ process for the players from the next season. If that’s true, let us see how it will be the next edition!
