The Champions League has moved to South Africa. And it has already got some interesting action with the Lions upsetting the fancied Mumbai Indians despite a trademark 69 from Sachin. And then the IPL runners losing to the Australians despite scoring an impressive 180 in their 20 overs.?More interesting than the results, however, is the scouting that is going on in India with an eye on IPL season four. While some teams have sent spotters to South Africa, others are relying on television action to embellish their dossiers with players who will be worth the dollars, come the IPL auction in the second week of November.
Says Abhijit Sarkar, man behind the new Sahara Pune Warriors, ?Ours is a new team and there?s little doubt we have to work that much harder to be competitive. Existing franchise owners have the advantage of knowing the trade for three years now. We need to make a mark by being proactive and innovative.? Sarkar is right. With the IPL fast becoming cricket?s blue ribbon trophy, team owners and players are one in giving their best to make the world?s costliest domestic cricket tournament their own.
If the new entrants are bracing for the challenge, cricket?s biggest brand, Sachin Tendulkar, too, is doing his part for his team. As he had said to me in an interview, ?We at the Mumbai Indians have put in a lot to create a brand identity. It has taken a good part of three years to create and nurture a fan base. We will do all we can to protect it.? With the IPL governing council making retention difficult, spending $4.5 million for four key players will empty half the purse for the existing franchises,
Sachin (who will inevitably be retained for $1.8 million) will find it impossible to retain his existing side. And that is where meticulous planning comes in. Sahara, as Sarkar says, is already in business. ?We hired Geoff Marsh in June and have since spent days and hours with him working out what will be a good mix for the team. You can?t take the auction haphazardly. You need to understand the economics of it to make it work.?
There?s little doubt that the forthcoming auction, the biggest-ever perhaps in IPL history, will be a battle of wit and attrition. Many from the Champions League will also feature in it, making the pool of players that much bigger. Jonathan Foo, for example, is suddenly a prized catch for a number of teams. A good domestic T-20 season in the West Indies, Foo was key to Guyana edging out Trinidad and Tobago in a nail-biting encounter in July and thus making it to the Champions League. How much do you spend for Foo, who is uncapped and young? Should you take the risk and splurge or do you exercise caution? Now that the total number of players per franchise have been reduced to 30, it is prudent to build development squads Barcelona style, squads that will eventually become a supply line for first team players?
At a time when the game is reeling with allegations of corruption and fans are fast losing faith, the challenge before the IPL franchises is to ensure that their supporters don?t turn away from the teams. And in so doing, strict cricketing measures that will help strengthen the foundation of the game will sure play a part. For, after all, if cricket could survive Cronjegate, it will also survive the Mazhar Majeed invasion.
I, for one, am looking forward to the auction. It will certainly not be a simple cricket event. Rather, it will be a pointer for the future when cricket, rather new-age cricket, will be plotted and planned in balancesheet formats, scripted and only then executed on the 22-yard strip. Teams that play well in the auction will have a headstart ahead of the fourth season of the competition. Who says the IPL is a seven-week jamboree?
?The writer is a cricket historian