To All IPL Franchise Owners
When the IPL started, all I was keen on were the matches. This time around I was a bit more keen on following the player auctions, courtesy TV channels telecasting the auctions live.
Firstly, lets focus on the retained players. Its no surprise that Mumbai Indians retained Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh. Nor did it come as a surprise when Chennai Super Kings retained Dhoni. But the most predictable and obvious thing to happen was the revamp of Kings XI Punjab and Kolkatta Knight Riders. Not surprisingly, they did not find even one player worth retaining.
Now coming to the players who were bought and sold. Frankly, I am a bit intrigued by the way sportspersons are bought and sold between clubs these days, like any commodity. To top it all, no one is even bothered to think whether any of these prices are justified. The BCCI started off the Indian Premier League to kill the Indian Cricket League. And true to their intentions, BCCI has been 100% successful. The Indian PAISA League has mauled the Indian CRICKET league. Like it has happened time and again, paisa has won over cricket. The biggest of all ridiculous deals were Rohit Sharma - $2M, Irfan Pathan - $1.9M, Ravindra Jadeja - $950K, Dinesh Karthik - $900K, Rahul Dravid - $500K. Ganguly, Lara, Chris Gayle - unsold.
How on earth do you think that someone like Irfan Pathan and Rohit Sharma can be paid ~ $2M. Are they even worth that much? An uncapped player like Dan Christian of Australia can be paid $1M or a legend like Dravid being paid peanuts. The IPL has become the biggest farce in Indian cricketing history. Everyone in the IPL seems to be making money. Apart from Indian players, even the local players seem like Manish Pandey are getting deals of 20-30L, which they term as raw. Now what do players like Pandey expect? To be treated on par with Tendulkar and for how long will such players brag about past laurels than focussing on the current job at hand?
Since every Tom, Dick and Harry is making money out of IPL, I also thought I will join the moolah bandwagon. So to all the franchises, I am up for grabs. Please include me in your team and I will settle for 20L. I will play as a bowler, batsman, wicketkeeper or fielder or even be the 12th man in the team. Considering that petrol and interest rates are at a all time high, inflation is over the roof, someone owning a quintal of onions can be a millionaire and taxes are paid only to fill politician's wallets, I do not think 20L is a raw deal.
I am all for it !!!!!!! I can be a warrior, knight rider, daredevil, royal challenger, charger or super king. You name it, you got it...........
Cheers
