5 surprises from the Masters Champions League auction

The success of the IPL has spurred on a good movement in the world of cricket. Current players, based on their skill sets and experience, managed to find employment in cricket leagues around the world. T20 is popular amongst the crowds and that ensures that most of these leagues are not in dearth of cash or revenues.However, one category that was left out was the seniors who had retired from international cricket. But the Masters Champions League ensures even retired players have something to look forward to now. The auction was held in Dubai on Monday.The MCL comprises of six teams Capricorn Commanders, Leo Lions, Libra Legends, Gemini Arabians, Saggitarius Soldiers, Virgo Super Kings yes, the Zodiac connection is interesting. Each of these six teams picked an icon player with a base price of $100,000. Apart from the icons, there were legends, A+ category players (those with 100 international caps or more), A Category players and Associate Country players.Each of these six teams were also given two marquee players also referred to as Legends. The matches will be held in UAE in February 2016 for two weeks with each of the six teams having a squad of 15.However, the auction definitely threw up some interesting surprises for the cricket followers, especially fans of some superstar cricketers.

#1 A big number of under-40 players

Fidel Edwards is one of several international discards picked up by the MCL

If you thought that Masters Champions League would feature a list of retired players who were legends from yesteryear, think again. There are some young names too. Richard Levi who went for $152,000 is 27 years old. Robin Peterson from South Africa, active not very long ago, is 36 years old and was sold to $80,000 to Team Leo.

Sean Ervine, the 33-year-old allrounder from Zimbabwe, went to Team Libra for $60,000. Ryan McLaren, the South Africa international who missed out of a World Cup berth narrowly is only 32 years old and went to Team Capricorn for $64,000.

One of the biggest surprises is the inclusion of the 33-year-old Fidel Edwards who went to Team Leo for $90,000. Taufeeq Umar, who is only 34, went to Team Libra for only $28,000.

#2 Team Gemini got a killer deal

Virender Sehwag and Kumar Sangakkara will play for the Geminis, both costing only $50,000 each

Before the auction, each team purchased two Legends from a pool of 12 marquee players at a combined cost of $100,000. That already sounds unfair considering a lot of players in the auction went for a lot more than $50,000. But sample this. Team Gemini’s two Legends are Virender Sehwag and Kumar Sangakkara – these two for $100,000, fresh from competitive cricket.

Team Capricorn got Abdul Razzaq and Michael Vaughan. Team Leo got Scott Styris and Heath Streak. Team Libra got Sourav Ganguly and Graeme Swann. Team Sagittarius got Mahela Jayawardene and Daniel Vettori. Team Virgo got Graeme Smith and Azhar Mahmood. That definitely is a sweet deal for Gemini Arabians.

What is surprising is the way some of these players have been stacked up. It is hard to see how Kumar Sangakkara or Virender Sehwag deserves a smaller price than say, someone like Owais Shah from England who went to Team Virgo for $75,000.

#3 The prices for Brian Lara and Paul Collingwood

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Brian Lara and Paul Collingwood were picked as two of the six icon players. Collingwood eventually went for $140,000 to Capricorn Commanders while Lara went for the base price to Leo Lions. With no offence to any of the legendary players, it is hard to fathom these prices based on how in-form or in-touch the players are.

Lara looked a little at sea in the recently concluded All Stars series. Most of the marquee players are in better touch. But if the organisers are planning to cash on star value, someone like Sourav Ganguly would have made a better bet any day considering the number of people whose attention he already has.

The numbers of a lot of players are mismatched and very few like Jacques Kallis prove a good fit for their price, one way or the other.

#4 Inclusion of virtually unknown players

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Every league is made up of some stars and some reasonably well-known players. A league such as this doesn’t rely on high-quality cricket to draw the audience. It needs famous players to come to the field to draw the audience. That is why some of the squads turned out to be surprising with their inclusions.

Ajay Ratra for example, a former India national who scored a century in West Indies, is virtually unknown even in India. The same holds true for someone like Phil Mustard or Malinga Bandara.

Even the distribution of marquee players it is a little unsystematic. Sample this – Smith, Jayawardene, Vettori and Sangakkara are in good playing form. However, Heath Streak and Scott Styris would be a lot rustier. The same is true for Michael Vaughan.

#5 Stars from the sub-continent

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One of the biggest surprises, the availability of players notwithstanding, is the relatively low number of stars from the sub-continent. Considering the matches will be played in UAE, players like Khurram Khan went at a good price.

By the same logic, you would expect more stars from Pakistan and then to some extent, India. Players like Shoaib Akhtar pulled out and some like Waqar Younis or Akram himself have commitments.

But it would have been nice to see Pakistan legends from the 90s like Inzamam, Saeed Anwar, Aamir Sohail, etc. The same can be commented about the composition of the marquee group.