The Karnataka Players in IPL 7

The Karnataka Ranaji team is on a roll with recent Ranaji and Irani cup victories. The timing of the Ranaji victory was so good for the players, they en-cashed it huge in this years IPL auctions. 11 players were picked up, and none by the Bangalore team. RCB perhaps lost too much money in buying Big players like Yuvraj and missed out on all the local talent.

Uthappa made the most of his T20 experience and being the aggressive Top order batsmen, bagging 5 Crores from KKR.  Having played 91 IPL games for Mumbai, Pune and RCB, Robin Uthappa this time will play for KKR along with Manish Pandey and the Karnataka Captain Vinay Kumar. The 2 most experienced Karnataka batsmen , tailor made T20 players along with the fast bowler, the trio will play a critical role in this years’ IPL for KKR. 

Stuart Binny , is the only Karnataka player who was retained will play for Rajasthan Royals for 4 crores. The time when players like Sehwag was pushed under the hammer, being retained in the same team for which he is playing since 2011 is a great honour. Its very clear that Rahul Dravid and RR trusts Binny’s talent and expects a big contribution this season as well.

Rajasthan also bought Karun Nair, one of the best Batsman of this Ranaji Season. Made 3 back to back centuries and everyone started noticing this young talent. He had played couple of games for RCB in the last IPL season. With a base price of just 10 lakhs, Dravid was not at all hesitant to go till 75 Lakhs to have Karun.
With Anil Kumble, the former KSCA president being part of Mumbai Indians it was not a surprise to see Shreays Gopal , another young spinner and the Karnataka Wicket keeper Gautam in the Mumbai Indians Lineup.

Delhi was ready to pay 1.6 Crores to the explosive batsman Mayank Aagrwal along with Sharath, the medium pacer who will make his IPL debut this season.

It will be very interesting to see how much impact the Karnataka Players will have in this years IPL. All the 10 Players put together costs 17.25 Crores and RCB is  already a clear loser by not being able to pick even one of  the young , in-form and local talent available at low price . Oh of course they bought just one Player for 14 Crores and clearly ran out of money or did they just forgot to notice.

Why did Badri went Unsold

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 

Player Profiles – Ricky Bhui – Youngest IPL7 Player

• Name: Ricky Bhui
• Age: 17 (born September 29, 1996)
• Speciality: Righ hand Batsman/ Leg Break Googly
• Team: Sunrisers Hyderabad
• Base Price : 10 Lakhs
• Sold At : 10 Lakhs
• Teams : India Under 19/ Andhra Under 19

Ricky – the India Under 19 Player , Middle order batsman and who can bowl hos Leg break Googly is the youngest player to be sold in IPL 7. At the age of 17 Years he will play for Sunrisers Hyderabad, his home team. Although he hasn’t made a century or taken lot of wickets he has made some decent scores batting at 5th Position in the Under 19 team.

Although Sunrisers didn’t pay him much and he may not play in all IPL matches, he will be seen around for sure.

The top 10 Hikes of the Auction

We all know who got the highest money in this year’s Auction. It is interesting to see who got the highest Hikes (Increase % from the Base Price).

Its the Indian Uncapped Players who dominated this list. Mayank Agarwal getting a 1500% increase from the base Price of 10 Lakhs to 1.6 Crores. Many players from the Karnataka Ranji Winning team made most of this years’Auction. Although the home team RCB couldn’t afford any of them,

Except Piyush Chawla and Yuvraj Singh, no one has played an International Match. Although all these players have been part of the past IPLs, 6 Players have played less than 15 IPL matches.

The message is clear. The Owners are ready to pay young domestic talents who might be part of the Indian team sooner or later, who can be available for all matches and continue to stay with the Franchise for long time.

Players in 2014 IPL Auction – Analysis

With 514 Players auctioned, this is one of the Biggest money trade for professional sportsmen in the History of Indian Sports.

With 219 Capped and 295 Uncapped Players, It was a great opportunity for Indian Uncapped Players. 86 % of the Uncapped Players being from India.

As expected the Indian Players are available to be brought, the most , they don’t constitute more than 60% . Its interesting to see 59 Australians, 41 South Africans and 36 WIs.

IPL is all about Young Players. Although, the average Age of the Players in the Auction is 26.8  , the youngest player in the auction was 17 Year old –  Uncapped Indian batsman Ricky Bhui and the oldest being Australian , Brad Hogg at the age of 43.

The most interesting thing about IPL is money. The base price of the Star Players are a known thing . However 35% of the players’ base price is just 10 Lakhs Rs, for 3 seasons.