Hours after the exciting, maddening, often shocking two-day auction of players, most of the Indian Premier League (IPL) team owners confidently espoused that they had got the team they wanted. But not too many people realised that the final teams, minus the uncapped local talent, reflected the personalities of their owners.
Kolkata Knights: Knight Riders believed that money could buy the best team. It opened its purse strings for players like Gautam Gambhir ($2.4 million) and Yusuf Pathan ($2.1 million). Shah Rukh Khan, who never tires of claiming that he is the best, wanted his team to be in his own mould. So, he paid liberally for even fast bowlers like L Balaji. In terms of sheer attitude, if not class, the players in the KKR team have spunk.
Belligerent Bangalore: The owner of UB Group has always tried to transform Royal Challengers into a flamboyant team. The aggression showed at the 2011 auction; his bids for many players felt like an onslaught on other teams. This was evident when Vijay Mallya’s son, Siddharth, agitatedly walked up to the table of Kings XI Punjab during the bidding for Saurabh Tiwary, whom Bangalore purchased for $1.6 million. Even his team, with other players such as A B de Villiers, Dilshan Tilakaratne and Zaheer Khan seems like a volatile cocktail.
Conservative Chennai: N Srinivasan, CMD, India Cement, which owns Super Kings, is a typical conservative Tamil Brahmin. His new team displays the same qualities. Essentially, the Chennai team is almost the same as in the previous three seasons. It retained four of its past players, and got others like Ravichandran Ashwin and Subramaniam Badrinath back into the squad. Most family-run southern business houses are wary of changing strategies or tactics too quickly.
Can’t say, don’t know Kochi: It has a slew of promoters, who fought for months before they could finalise their shareholding pattern. The chaos and confusion showed in the team selection, too. In the two days, it picked up almost half-a-dozen bowlers — including S Sreesanth, R P Singh, Muralidaran and Vinay Kumar. In between, it realised its folly and tried to make up by picking up a few batsmen. However, it still bid for more bowlers. Of all ten teams, Kochi purchased the most players, including ten foreign ones (when only four are allowed to play). It got its skipper, Sri Lankan Mahela Jayawardene, although he has said he is not too keen on that role.
‘Devilish’ Delhi: The Daredevils were possibly the best equipped with some sort of team strategy. It knew exactly who to buy, for what price, and the defined role for each player. When it badly wanted a player, it went all out to get him; a common sight was Delhi upping its paddle without bringing it down during fierce bidding for specific players. And one got to see the devil-like smiles across its table each time Delhi got the player it had set its eyes on.
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Composed Chargers: Like its owner, who has quietly and stubbornly managed to keep The Times of India at bay in his own backyard, Hyderabad’s Deccan Chargers went through the auction in a business-like fashion. Unlike other teams, it did not generally overpay for its players; the only exceptions were Cameroon White ($1.1 million) and Daniel Christian ($900,000). It purchased seniors like Kumara Sangakkara, stars such as Kevin Pietersen, Ishant Sharma and Dale Steyn, and maintained a balance with upcoming youngsters like Pragyan Ojha and Shikhar Dhawan.
Subdued Kings and Royals: Both the Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab seemed clueless. They either did not have a strategy, or possibly wanted to finalise one only after they were sure if they would play in IPL-4 because of ongoing legal cases. In the case of Royals, it could even be a few unknown aces that its captain, the wily Shane Warne, is holding up his sleeve. The Kings may be banking on the abilities of their skipper, Adam Gilchrist, to woo good players from the local pool.