Now Hidayat says IBL auction was not fair

Former Olympic and World champion Taufik Hidayat is the latest to criticise the auction process of the inaugural Indian Badminton League (IBL) and felt the foreign players were not treated in a fair manner as compared to their Indian counterparts.
Hidayat was bought for a meagre USD 15,000 (same base price) by Hyderabad Hotshots. However, his less experienced teammates -- Pradnya Gadre (USD 46,000, base price - USD 10,000), Tarun Kona (USD 28,000, base price - USD 15,000) and Ajay Jayaram (USD 25,000, same base price) -- were sold for higher amounts.
"I felt bad when for the first time I saw on TV how much a player was bought for. I felt the IBL didn't treat the foreign players in the right manner. The price slab that was set was nonsense. Most of the foreign players were sold for their base price while the Indain players were bought for much higher prices," Hidayat told reporters last night.

The Indonesian said it was his first and last IBL.
"I felt the IBL organisers did not take world rankings into consideration. This is my first and last IBL," Hidayat said on the sidelines of a practice session here yesterday.
The 32-year-old Hidayat is a three-time Asian Games gold medallist, who retired from the game after the Indonesian Super Series in June this year.
Hidayat is not only player to have criticised the IBL auctions. Earlier, 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games gold medal-winning combination of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa had had slammed the League's decision to slash their base prices at the last moment, terming the move as "disrespectful" and "absurd".