The cattle market is over for another year, and as expected KP (to Bangalore) and Freddie (to Chennai) both fetched good money. Both the same, in fact, on $1.55m, which should help keep things peaceful in the England dressing room. Their prices just eclipse the $1.5m paid for Dhoni last year, but there were far fewer players in the auction this time around, so it is not surprising that the two big stars both fetched premium prices.
Michael Clarke withdrew from the auction to “spend more time with his family”. As usual that well-worn political euphemism appears to have been a smokescreen. The word out of India is that Puppy had over-priced himself and had withdrawn to avoid the embarrassment of not having anyone bid on him.
The Royals spent quite a lot of money on Shaun Tait, which is understandable. We needed a good strike bowler to replace Tanvir, and Tait was one of the best on offer. I must admit that I’d never heard of Tyron Henderson, which just goes to show that I should pay more attention to the English Twenty20 tournament. Henderson was a key player in the Middlesex side that won that trophy last year, and distinguished himself in Twenty20 back home in South Africa as well. He’ll be an excellent addition to the Royals squad.
I have no idea what Bangalore think they are doing. I love Rahul Dravid as a batsman, but he’s not the greatest captain in the world, and saddling him with KP and Jesse Ryder is about the worst thing you could do. Two more headstrong players would be hard to find. I’d suggest making KP captain, but he can’t be there for the whole tournament.
Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai all appear to have strengthened their squads, and as they were all good last year they should be better now. Punjab haven’t made any great buys, but Yuvraj ran a great team last year and should do the same again. My initial instinct is that the Knight Riders and Chargers will disappoint again.
Full details of the auction are available from the BBC. I see from the video that the Royals did actually bid on KP, but eventually let Vijay Mallya have him.
I thought cricket captains were just sort of figureheads.
Nadine:
Dear me no. A cricket captain is responsible for all of the tactics on the field and has a say in selection. All those signals that baseball coaches use to direct play – nothing like it in cricket, the captain makes those decisions.
Occasionally a captain will take a strategic toilet break so as to be able to talk things over with his coach and analysts, but for the most part he is in charge in the field.