How Idea Of IPL Auction Emerged Over 'An Evening Tea Conversation'
Published - 26 Jun 2020, 01:44 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:30 AM
IPL auctions has seen plenty of players go under the hammer. It is a stage where the fate of players and their franchises for over the course of a season or more is decided. The IPL auction makes it all the more interesting for the fans as well, as they sit on the edge of their seat to see the fate of their favourite player being decided.
Then IPL COO Sundar Raman was at the centre of conversation when the idea for an auction emerged. Speaking to anchor Gaurav Kapur, Raman described, how a chat over an evening tea conversation was where the idea of hosting IPL auction for the better suitability of players and franchises emerged.
The player auction almost came as a part of an evening tea conversation: Sundar Raman
Ex-IPL COO said that ahead of the inaugural edition of the lucrative tournament the franchises were sold, venues were confirmed, but the players were left to be sold to different teams. A lot of iconic players had their home teams while a player like MS Dhoni did not have one. It is during that time, a franchise, suggested of having an auction and the idea was discussed and sealed over the next two minutes.
“The player auction almost came as a part of an evening tea conversation while we were doing a thousand other things. We had sold the franchises, we had the venues confirmed, now it was left to on how do we get the players rostered into different teams,” IPL COO Sundar Raman said during the show 22 Yarns with Gaurav Kapur on Oaktree Sports’ YouTube channel.
“The only thing sure was the marquee players, who were assigned to a set of franchises. There was Sachin Tendulkar for Mumbai, Virender Sehwag for Delhi, Yuvraj Singh for Punjab, Sourav Ganguly for Kolkata. But MS Dhoni was without a home,” Raman said.
“The challenge was one of those conversations where the question was how do we make the franchises take on the players? One of the franchises, I don’t remember who it was, said ‘why don’t we auction them?’”
“After two minutes of deliberation I said ‘good idea, it will generate a lot of consumer interest’. And that decided that” he explained.
The next IPL auction will take place in 2021.
