Five Best and Worst Deals in the IPL Auction 2011

IPL auctions

The dust of the IPL Player Auction has settled. The auction news made so much noise in the country for 2 days and all the eyes were brightened with the astronomical players paid for the service of players. In an auction you can never get all the player on your wishlist as in the process of bids and counter bids, sometimes you have to pay more for someone you had plans to buy cheaply and sometimes loose out a few players to others. If luck favors you, you may get a few ‘value for money’ players spending less amount. It’s time for analysis of the deals made in the auction room in Bangalore. Here is a list of 5 best and worst deals of the IPL Player Auction 2011.

This list is prepared considering the deals that happened in the auction and the good deals that didn’t happen are not considered(like the ones of Sourav ganguly, Gayle, Gibbs or Boucher). The deals with the players retained weren’t considered either. The list is prepared by considering the value for money a player can give to the team considering his past performances. It is wise to point here that it is absolutely impossible to predict a player’s performance in the future. A player listed under worst deals may perform extra-ordinarily well in the IPL4 and the players listed under best deals may fail to perform giving headache to their teams. This list, as mentioned above, considers a player’s worth on the basis of his past performances and current form (in IPL as well as International cricket).

5 BEST DEALS:

1. Zaheer Khan: Considering his current form and his performances on Indian soil in the past, Zaheer is one of the ‘must have’ guy for any team. Yet, it was strange that he was sold for just Rs 4.06 crore to Royal Challenegers Bangalore. Rs 4.06 crore is very small for Zaheer when a Irfan Pathan is sold for 8.55 crore. Zaheer was one of the successful bowlers for Mumbai Indians last season. One of the reason why other teams used to score low against Mumbai Indians was the deadly combo of Malinga and Khan. RCB must be feeling nice to have Zak in their team for such a small investment. In fact, RCB bowling line up will be the best in IPL with Zaheer, Nannes and Vettori in the side

2. Dwayne Bravo: A genuine all rounder who helps the team both with the batting as well as bowling. An athlete, agile on the field and can change the game at any moment with a few big shots while batting or getting two quick wickets while bowling. Though IPL3 wasn’t very successful for Bravo, he didn’t play that badly in the series too. Sold for a price of only Rs 92 lakh, Bravo, surely, was a very good deal for Chennai Super Kings.

3. Murali Kartik: It was a shocker when Murali Kartik didn’t find a taker in the first round of the auction. But later his name came again in the re-auction and he was sold for double of his base price to Pune. Pune didn’t have an experienced spinner in the side and picking up the second most economical bowler for Rs 1.8 crore is certainly going to help the team.

4. Graeme Smith: South Africa skipper sold for just Rs 2.3 crore??? Yes, if a team gets a player like Graeme Smith for just Rs 2.3 crore, it is advantage for the team. Smith not just contributes to the team with his bat, he also can help the think tank with his vast cricketing experience. Who knows, Pune Warriors may even name him as the captain of the side. Graeme Smith can hold the innings at one end as the opener while the other opener may go slam bang on the other side.

5. Sakib Al Hasan: Many may not agree with me with this deal to be one of the best deals. But I firmly believe that this was a very good deal for the Kolkata Knight Riders. The man who topped the ICC world all rounders’ ranking in 2009 will provide a good all round option to the team which has invested mostly on specialist batsmen and bowlers.

5 WORST DEALS:

1. Ravindra Jadeja: Didn’t you get shocked when you heard that Ravindra Jadeja was sold for Rs 4.29 crore? Will any team like to put money on an all rounder whose bowling average is more than his batting average? It was really funny the way teams went mad while bidding for Jadeja. Sure, he performed well in IPL1 and had his role in Rajasthan Royal’s winning the championship, yet after that nothing extra-ordinary performance from him to make us believe that he deserves a price of Rs 4.3 crore. And when a new team like Kochi puts so much money on a rookie player, the bad deal turns the worst.

2. Irfan Pathan: Why would any one want a national team discard, not selected in the national team’s 30 probables for the World Cup and a fast bowler who has lost his swing? That is when he hasn’t even performed spectacularly in any domestic match in the recent past. Only points favoring Pathan’s case is that he will be fresh when the IPL starts after a few days the World Cup is over and his ‘occasional’ big innings that changes the course of the game. Still buying Irfan for Rs 8.55 crore makes it one of the worst deals of the 2011 IPL auction.

3. Daniel Christian: Had you heard the name before he was thrown a deal at the IPL auction? That too for Rs 4.14 crore? If no, it is not your fault. Why would some one take note of a player has played just 3 International T20 matches (not even ODIs or Tests)? Even his domestic T20 stats isn’t so impressive. Just 26 domestic T20 matches and he has scored 302 runs (@ avg 16.77) and taken 21 wickets (@20.61). Rs 4.14 crore seems to be too much. Not a good deal for the Deccan Chargers.

4. Md. Kaif: Undoubtedly, Kaif is a talented batsman but it is also without doubt that his best days are over. He was picked up when his name was put up on the auction for the third time and teams seemed to have bidding for him just for fun. Finally, RCB bought him ending the fun bidding for Rs 58.76 lakh. Well, the price doesn’t seem to be much and you may think that it may not affect the RCB. But it is to be reminded that RCB has just Rs 1.42 crore left with them and they will have to fill the 14 slots in their team. As the team will have to depend on the uncapped players to fill the slots, Rs 58 lakh would have helped them to buy experienced uncapped players.

5. Brett Lee: Another player whose current form and fitness don’t instill confidence. Injury prone Lee is currently part of the Australia squad for the ODI series against England and also part of Australia’s World Cup plans. It is to be seen if he can maintain his fitness level by the time IPL starts. If he becomes injured, the Kolkata team which bought Lee for Rs 1.8 crore may find difficulty to have a decent pace attack.

So these were the best and worst IPL auction deals. Do you agree? Let us know in the comments section which are the 5 best and worst deals according to you.