An international cap is on top of every cricketer's wish list, and the importance of playing forIndia even once was exemplified in Bangalore over the last weekend during the auction process for the fourth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). This, however, was only one of the issues that raised people's eyebrows during and beyond those two days.
Manoj Tiwary, who has played only one-day international for India, was bought by Kolkata Knight Ridersfor $475000 as compared to his base price of $100000. But, it was Saurabh Tiwary and Umesh Yadav, who have both played three ODIs each for India, who were the main beneficiaries of the contentious capped vs uncapped rule for Indian cricketers. While Tiwary's services were finally secured by Royal Challengers Bangalore for $1.6 million after an intense bidding process; Delhi Daredevils bought Yadav for a hefty $750000.
Tiwary's base price was $100000 and Yadav's was $50000 - but, the duo literally reaped the rewards for making their international debuts in a tri-series in Zimbabwe last year. The price tag for Tiwary can be justified to an extent considering he finished as the eighth highest run-scorer in IPL-3; but Yadav took only six wickets in seven matches at an economy rate of 7.66 for the Daredevils last season and he would be thanking his stars that he has played three ODIs for India.
This is in stark contrast to the fortunes of the likes of Manish Pandey, T Suman, Shadab Jakati, Monish Mishra and Ambati Rayudu, all of whom haven't donned India colours yet. However, all these five players have had successful IPL careers, but they will now have to be content with mere peanuts when it comes to their worth in the lucrative T20 tournament. Pandey and Rayudu would have dearly loved to be on that flight to Zimbabwe, more for the pride and honour of representing India. But, in hindsight, they would look at the Zimbabwe tri-series now as a dual missed opportunity.
Pandey, who is the first Indian cricketer to score a century in the IPL, scored 569 runs in 24 matches at an average of 31.61 and a strike rate of 119.78 for Royal Challengers Bangalore, and impressed in most of his knocks across the first three seasons of the IPL. Rayudu, who made his IPL debut last season forMumbai Indians, played some crucial knocks for the franchise as he not only built on the starts provided by the opening batsmen but also consolidated and provided the finishing kick when he was required to. Rayudu finished as the 13th highest run-scorer in IPL-3 with 356 runs in 14 matches at a strike rate of 144.71, and further proved his utility by doubling up as the wicket-keeper for most of MI's matches in IPL-3.
Suman has scored 559 runs in 28 matches for Deccan Chargers and was crucial to his franchise's success in IPL-2. Jakati has impressed in the opportunities he has got for Chennai Super Kings and has taken 27 wickets in 21 matches at an economy rate of 7.53; and Mishra provided some good starts to the Chargers last season.
The five afore mentioned cricketers will now have to be content with paycheques in the region of $44,000-66,000 based on their first-class experience. According to the uncapped players' rule of the IPL, those cricketers who made their debut in the last two years will be paid Rs 10 lakhs ($22,000); those in the field for two to five years would get Rs 20 lakhs and those with more than five years' experience would pocket Rs 30 lakhs.
To further illustrate the sheer unfairness of this entire situation, the much-criticised Ravindra Jadeja was bought by Kochi for a hefty $950000. With all due respect to Jadeja, the likes of Pandey, Rayudu and Suman are not only better cricketers but also have had tremendous success in the IPL, and would have pocketed at least the same as or even more than the Saurashtra all-rounder had they been in the auction pool. Jakati and Mishra would also have earned more than the $66000 they will now get, especially taking into consideration the clamour for Indian cricketers in the auction - not surprising taking into consideration there were only 48 Indians in the pool, which in itself should have ideally raised concerns among the franchises before the auction.
Another point of debate is the inclusion of foreign uncapped cricketers in the auction pool. If even the most obscure overseas cricketer was allowed to register himself for the auction, why were the Indian uncapped players prevented from doing the same? This, especially, taking into account the low number of Indian cricketers who were included in the auction pool.
Some of the overseas uncapped cricketers who benefited from this discrepancy in the rules were Australians Aaron Finch (he made his T20I debut on January 12) and Matthew Wade who were bought by the Daredevils for $300000 and $100000 respectively, and Mitchell Marsh who will be paid $290000 by the Pune Warriors for his services. South Africa's Faf du Plessis was bought by Chennai Super Kings for $120000 and his counterpart Alfonso Thomas, who played his lone T20I in February 2007 went to Pune for $100000.
Australian all-rounder Daniel Christian, who has only played three T20Is, was snapped up by the Chargers for $900000; his base price was only $50000. Ironically, Christian is not part of Australia's squad for the ongoing T20I series against England, and this hefty pay cheque for him will only leave Pandey, Suman and Rayudu wondering what could have been had they also been included in the auction pool.
An important point to note here is that in September 2010, it had been decided that Indian domestic cricketers, who had played at least 75 percent of their franchises' matches in IPL-3 would be part of the auction pool. But, this decision was reversed following a Mumbai Indians' suggestion to the IPL Governing Council. MI suggested that franchises be allowed to retain uncapped players and they are not included in the auction pool; the IPL GC decided in December that these cricketers would not be in the auction and instead franchises would be allowed to sign domestic uncapped cricketers through a tripartite agreement involving the player, franchise and the IPL.
If one has been following events this week, the holes in this rule have been blown apart by a some franchises; the most notable case being Pandey's who is reportedly being pressured by his erstwhile franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore to sign for them instead of shifting his allegiance to Sahara Pune Warriors. Pandey, apparently, is being threatened with dire consequences if he refuses to tow the party line, and this could easily be repeated in the case of other talented uncapped Indian players, who are bound to be in demand because there are only a few of them around. Franchises and the IPL GC need to be conscious of the fact that they can't sidetrack a cricketer's career to placate their own egos.
This entire business of downgrading a capped player to the uncapped category after five years of last playing international cricket makes no sense to me personally. The likes of Aakash Chopra, Hrishikesh Kaniktar and Hemang Badani, are and will remain international cricketers in the record books. How can the IPL for its own benefits deem them uncapped players - it surely devalues the contributions that they made to the Indian team during their international careers?
Venugopal Rao should be thanking his stars - he last played for India in May 2006 - and was bought by the Daredevils in last weekend's auction for $700000. Ajit Agarkar, who hasn't played for India since 2007, was bought by the same franchise for $210000. This then begs the question - if T20 cricket is touted to be tailor-made for youngsters, why are most of them, read the cream of Indian domestic players placed in the 'uncapped' category where they will get peanuts for their skills and talent. To take this point further, when the next round of IPL auctions comes up, and should Shane Warne and Brian Lara, for the sake of argument, put themselves up for auction, will they also be placed in the uncapped category, because by then they wouldn't have played international cricket for five years!
The IPL auction process has a few loopholes that weren't plugged initially, but due care needs to be taken now to ensure that uncapped domestic cricketers don't have to bear the brunt of the lack of foresight on the Governing Council's part. This has to be the priority for the IPL's governing council in the lead-up to the league's fourth season.
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