When the Indian Premier League (IPL) player auctions ended on Saturday, I was left a little bewildered. There were no takers for New Zealander Martin Guptill who is at the peak of his form in limited over cricket. He was billed as a marquee player but went unsold.
Australian Aaron Finch, another T20 specialist and marquee player, was bought by Gujarat Lions at his base price of Rs 1 crore, which means he drew only limited interest amongst the bidders. There were no takers for Usman Khawaja, another prolific limited-over batsman.
On the other hand, Ashish Nehra, who at 36 doesn't have too much cricket left in him, was chased by at least two teams till Sunrisers Hyderabad bagged him for Rs 5.5 crore. And Pawan Negi, somewhat of an unknown talent, was acquired by Delhi Daredevils for Rs 8.5 crore.
While Nehra was recalled to the Indian T20 squad in Australia, Negi has been picked up by the selectors for national duty in forthcoming fixtures. That seems to have worked in their favour.
One straight reason for Guptill's exclusion is that the IPL rules are loaded in favour of Indian players. All teams are required to play at least seven Indians, which leaves space for only four foreigners. So once teams have their quote of four or five overseas players, they prefer to stock up with inexpensive local talent.
That explains the long list of unsold overseas players in the auction: For every one selected, there were at least three unsold.
There is serious indication that the IPL teams have become cost conscious. In 2014, Yuvraj Singh was the most expensive buy when Royal Challengers Bangalore paid Rs 14 crore for him. The southpaw was the top draw in 2015 as well when Delhi Daredevils coughed up Rs 16 crore for his services. In 2016, the maximum a team paid was Rs 9.5 crore when Royal Challengers Bangalore picked up Shane Watson.
In 2014, the average bid at the auction was Rs 1.7 crore. It fell sharply to Rs 1.3 crore in 2015 before rising to Rs 1.44 crore in 2016.
Most of the cost-conscious teams, who are not in the IPL to just build a profile, have invested much of their money into one or two players this season. For Kings XI Punjab, Mohit Sharma at Rs 6.5 crore accounted for 61 per cent of the Rs 10.55 crore it spent on eight players in the auction. And in Royal Challengers Bangalore's case, Watson accounted 61.5 per cent of the Rs 15.45 crore spent on 11 players.
After being in the business for several years, the teams have got some idea of how to control costs. One is to hire Indians wherever they can. Some have even hired Indian coaches and support staff. That's because they come much cheaper. Coaches from abroad often insist on support staff from their own country, many of them come with their extended families and have to be put up in fancy hotels. Indians are less demanding and at times even share hotel rooms.
In that sense, IPL is gravitating towards what it was meant to do: Provide an opportunity for local players to showcase their talent.
This year, they are all the more concerned about costs because IPL comes at the end of a rather long T20 season: The Asia Cup and the ICC World Cup will take place before it. There could be viewer fatigue as also less money from advertisers. This requires the teams to keep their costs under control.
That apart, which cricketers get a premium? If you look at the list, you will realise that all of them can bowl: Some are prodigious and others are average. Amongst the most expensive five buys, you will find two bowlers (Chris Morris and Mohit Sharma), one bowler who can bat (Pawan Negi) and two batsmen who can bowl reasonably well (Shane Watson and Yuvraj Singh).
The list of marquee players had three pure batsmen: One (Guptill) found no buyer, another sold at base price (Finch) and the third (Kevin Pietersen) went for a modest premium of 75 per cent.
Though it may seem that T20 is a batsman's game, this is clearly not the case. With teams easily chasing down huge totals in limited over cricket, the skills of bowlers seem to be in demand one more time. It's not only about slogging with the bat.
And what type of bowlers find favour with the selectors? It's the slow bowlers who are difficult to send to the boundary with just a flick of the wrist or a generous edge of the bat. Tearaway pacers are not in demand. That's why Dale Steyn, at Rs 2.3 crore, commanded less than Mohit Sharma (Rs 6.5 crore), Nehra (Rs 5.5 crore) and Ishant Sharma (Rs 3.8 crore), and Shaun Tait was not touched by any team.
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