Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 6:13 pm Post subject: Indian Premier League (20/20)
Well the auction for the players kicked off today in this completey new way of doing things.
much like playing fantasy games, each team has a certain amount of money they can spend, their are a host of top players available to them and they bid to get them in their team.
the top players went for $1.5million (Dhoni) and $1.35 million (Symonds).
Shayne Warne was expected to top the spends but maybe common sense prevailed with him not being the ideal 20/20 player and he went for $450,000.
Adam Gilchrist
Andrew Symonds
Herschelle Gibbs
Shahid Afridi
Scott Styris
VVS Laxman
Rohit Sharma
Chamara Silva
RP Singh
Chaminda Vaas
Nuwan Zoysa
some awesome hitters in there and a few decent bowlers to boot. who can wait to see what sort of run rate Afridi, Symonds, Gibbs and Gilly can put togetehr>?!
i can tell you now, hyderabad won't win - they'll have a few awesome passages of play and win a few games, but as exciting as they will be, they surely won't be consistent enough to win outright and they look hugely imbalanced.
i'm most interested in the under 22 players from India - players like Jhunjunwala were a revelation in the ICL with their fielding and energy...I think that energy and motivation are key factors here...looking through the teams, they're all pretty much equally talented, but some will be more motivated than others.
Also the players who did best in the ICL were the under-rated ones...in this tournament it's all relative but I expect AB de Villiers, David Hussey to prosper. Spinners will also be as crucial as ever.
I'm off for a scouting mission a couple weeks before this kicks off so hopefully I can get a better feel for all of this.
cant wait for the tourney to start, havent been excited about a cricket event since...erm, the last 20/20 tournament a couple of months ago!
on cricinfo they're saying the early matches are on at 9:30am GMT and the Day/Night ones are on at 2:30pm GMT, so that would be perfect for us.
Been looking at the prices they've paid for certain players, and there have been some huge anomalies, considering that the amount in USD is the salary that each player is receiving for 44 days' work this year.
This article really made me laugh, somehow I don't feel too bad for someone who 'only' rakes in $400,000, doesn't do much for Ponting's whiney image! Although you can see where he's coming from, his team-mate Chris Gayle is getting paid double that!
There have been some curious buys already, possibly the worst value for money deal was Ishant Sharma at $925k, although I get the feeling that Ganguly had something to do with that extortionate amount - all of the 'icon' players get 15% more than their team's maximum bid.
Strange to see how Yusuf Pathan is worth as much as Graeme Smith.
Having looked through the teams again, I like Mohali - they're being coached by Tom Moody and have Jayawardene and Sangakkarra...so there's already a strong Sri Lankan connection and they'll have a good team spirit with Moody in charge.
But out of all the teams, I really fancy Delhi to go far. They've got the perfect blend of players, all extremely talented, exceptional fielders, and generally under-rated players.
Good value buys for me (it's all relative though, 300k is still footballer's wages!):
Styris @ 175k, Chamara Silva @ 100k, Mike Hussey @ 350k, Sarwan @ 225k, Umar Gul @ 150k, Chanderpaul @ 200k, de Villiers @ 300k
Almost all of these are Indian, obviously they have huge marketability but there's no point having huge appeal if you get knocked out before the semi-finals!
The whole issue with expensive Indian players is pretty much the same as really expensive English players, they are over-rated and easily marketable. So I am not shocked by the prices, although a bit surprised!
Personally, I will be rooting for Delhi since I am from that part of the country. Lookig forward to the whole tournament, should be good I think. I hope.
Joined: 20 Dec 2007 Posts: 780 Location: Portsmouth
Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 12:22 am Post subject:
I've not paid any attention to IPL. When i heard a few months back McGrath, Warny & Lara were going to be involved plus other retired Test players i thought it was some old boys jamboree. How wrong i was. I'm still confused how players got bought yet some won't be available this time. Are they 2 year contracts? And i thought Shane Bond chucked in test cricket to play, but he's now Hampshre overseas player until Warny finishes his Poker & getting tonked all over the place again in the sub-continent.
Wealey-eyed Ricky's indignation at not being that expensive stung him into a ton for Aussies yday.
Early odds up on Betfair. Hydrebad are marginal favourites at the mo. But they look short of runs to me, if list above is correct. Gilly & Styris look way past their best. Symo yet to score well in international 20-20 and probably most unwelcome in India. Unless boom-boom (Alfridi) has one of his flukey days where it all clicks. _________________ Steve
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