One of the Biggest Surprises this auction was Subramaniam Badrinath being not picked up by any Franchise. The 33 years old Right-Handed Middle order batsman was the player in the auction with the Highest Number of IPL games to his credit.The only 3 Players who have played more IPL games than Badrinath are Suresh Raina, Rohith Sharma and MS Dhoni — All retained players.
Having played all the 6 seasons of IPL and playing 95 games (all for CSK) why was he not picked up this time.
Age: Teams have realised building a team over the years is the way forward for consistent performance year on year, hence looking for players who can stay with the team for long. The Indian uncapped , young talents are the most demanding ones. with Badri at 33 Years of age, signing a 3 years contract doesn’t fall into the long term plans of the franchises. Perhaps the same reason why Players like Brad Hogg, Gibbs, David Hussey and Brett Lee were left out too
Base Price: Perhaps Badri made a mistake of keeping his base price at 1 Crore. When most of the teams had exhusted their money and looking for low cost Indian Players, Badri didnt fit into the scheme of things. Badri denies it, but may be a base price of 30 lakhs would have made a difference
“I don’t think it’s a factor,” Badrinath said. “I had based it on my experience, my contribution and records.”
Role: Badri’s role was more of a rescuer in the middle order. He was the “Mr Dependable” in 2011 season for Chennai . Perhaps his Stats doesn’t show the importance of the role.
One of the franchise coaches pointed out Badrinath’s style of batting did not suit every team’s needs. “He is not an impact player. He does not force an opponent to change his plans, at least in this format. He might have played some influential knocks but there were times when Chennai were in trouble early and needed him to re-build the innings and he was not convincing,” the coach said.
Loyalty: This should ideally been the positive factor for Players. But for Badri, who played all 5 Seasons for CSK, this turned out negative. Most of the players, except the Big ones have now played in multiple teams . Making new friends, building new relationships, Franchises knowing more about you than just the stats increases your possibilities of being Picked up.
Once CSK decided, they don’t need him any more that was the end of Badri’s IPL career. Obviously very disappointed Badri said “its a Blow in his chest”. Catch the full Interview here
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