They All Got Who They Wanted
Or was that the case the 2nd IPL auction held earlier this morning in Goa?
As expected the IPL got two new millionnaires - Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff, each bagging US$ 1.55 million and pushing Dhoni from being the most expensive IPL player to the 3rd expensive one.
Bangalore Royal Challengers
As I had expected a couple of days back it was Mallya who pocketed KP's services. Bangalore desperately needed a flamboyant player and they not only got KP, but Jesse Ryder, the hard hitting New Zealander as well.
KP and Ryder make a hell of a pair to pick up in one auction.
What's more interesting though is that KP joins the same team as Boucher, Kallis, and Steyn. What a happy bunch of South Africans!
Chennai SuperKings
Dhoni had wished for Flintoff and he got him.
What a rich team the Chennai SuperKings are now - 2 players earning at least $1.5 million. Deep pockets that.
Adding Flintoff to a line up that already included Hayden and Micheal Hussey just made the SuperKings even more super.
Add to that Dhoni, Raina, Albie Morkel, and Muralitharan and you are looking at probably the next IPL Champions.
Rajasthan Royals
The defending IPL champions had the toughest job at the auction as they had to find replacements for last year's player of the tournament and bowler of the tournament.
Shane Watson and Sohail Tanvir played an instrumental role in the Royals' march to the title last year. This year though, both are unavailable.
Their replacements - Tyron Henderson and Shaun Tait.
Henderson, from what I hear, is an allrounder and replaces Watson, while Tait, we all know about.
The Royals have a tough season ahead.
Kolkata Knight Riders
Missing Umar Gul, the Riders wanted a fast bowler and they bagged one in Mashrafe Murtaza, the Bangladeshi striker.
Surprisingly it wasn't Shakib or KP or Flintoff who generated a bidding war this morning.
It was Murtaza, who starting from a base price of $50,000 was bagged by the Riders for 12 times that amount - $600,000.
Despite not having the services of Salman Butt and Shoaib Akhtar this season, the Riders did not buy any other player but then when one has the likes of Gayle, Ponting, Hodge, David Hussey, and Mendis on the roster to go along with Ganguly and Ishant Sharma, you don't really need anyone else.
Kings XI Punjab
Priety Zinta's Kings were only looking for a replacement for Brett Lee and they managed an able buy in Jerome Taylor.
The Kings also bought Ravi Bopara to add to the list of hard hitters in Shaun Marsh, Pomersbach, Hopes, Jayawardene, and King Sanga.
Not to mention Yuvraj Singh!
Formidable team that.
Delhi Daredevils
As if David Warner, Dirty Dirk, and all the other Australians that the Daredevils has been buying were not enough, they bought Owais Shah and Paul Collingwood as well.
The Daredevils just keep getting stronger with every new pick of theirs.
Shah and Collingwood just adds to their strength.
They've already got Sehwag and Gambhir. And AB De Villiers and Dilshan. And Manoj Tiwary and Dinesh Karthik.
Not to mention McGrath, Mahroof, Nehra, Geeves, and Vettori!
Mumbai Indians
They didn't have to replace anyone.
They had Sachin, Jayasuriya, Bravo and they recently traded for Zaheer Khan, an able replacement for Shaun Pollock.
Still, they had a busy auction bagging the flavour of the year, JP Duminy, who also generated quite a bidding war eventually selling for $950,000 - 3 times more than his base price of $300,000.
They also bought Kyle Mills and the Bangladesh skipper, Mohammad Ashraful.
Sachin has quite a team this year.
Deccan Chargers
The team ended bottom of the league last year.
Their CEO yesterday said he was no longer their CEO, but the owners denied it.
They replaced Laxman in the off season with Gilchrist as their captain.
Afridi is no longer available, not that that would make a difference. But the troubled cricketers, Gibbs and Symonds, both going through some sort of rehab, are there.
The Chargers have had nothing going for them.
The auction didn't do them much good either. Not to discount the abilities of Fidel Edwards and Dwayne Smith, but surely they should have tried harder.
The auction is over. The teams are stronger. The defiending champions are weaker. But they have Warne. Another has Warner. KP & Flintoff are on board as well. Exciting IPL season ahead!
As expected the IPL got two new millionnaires - Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff, each bagging US$ 1.55 million and pushing Dhoni from being the most expensive IPL player to the 3rd expensive one.
Bangalore Royal Challengers
As I had expected a couple of days back it was Mallya who pocketed KP's services. Bangalore desperately needed a flamboyant player and they not only got KP, but Jesse Ryder, the hard hitting New Zealander as well.
KP and Ryder make a hell of a pair to pick up in one auction.
What's more interesting though is that KP joins the same team as Boucher, Kallis, and Steyn. What a happy bunch of South Africans!
Chennai SuperKings
Dhoni had wished for Flintoff and he got him.
What a rich team the Chennai SuperKings are now - 2 players earning at least $1.5 million. Deep pockets that.
Adding Flintoff to a line up that already included Hayden and Micheal Hussey just made the SuperKings even more super.
Add to that Dhoni, Raina, Albie Morkel, and Muralitharan and you are looking at probably the next IPL Champions.
Rajasthan Royals
The defending IPL champions had the toughest job at the auction as they had to find replacements for last year's player of the tournament and bowler of the tournament.
Shane Watson and Sohail Tanvir played an instrumental role in the Royals' march to the title last year. This year though, both are unavailable.
Their replacements - Tyron Henderson and Shaun Tait.
Henderson, from what I hear, is an allrounder and replaces Watson, while Tait, we all know about.
The Royals have a tough season ahead.
Kolkata Knight Riders
Missing Umar Gul, the Riders wanted a fast bowler and they bagged one in Mashrafe Murtaza, the Bangladeshi striker.
Surprisingly it wasn't Shakib or KP or Flintoff who generated a bidding war this morning.
It was Murtaza, who starting from a base price of $50,000 was bagged by the Riders for 12 times that amount - $600,000.
Despite not having the services of Salman Butt and Shoaib Akhtar this season, the Riders did not buy any other player but then when one has the likes of Gayle, Ponting, Hodge, David Hussey, and Mendis on the roster to go along with Ganguly and Ishant Sharma, you don't really need anyone else.
Kings XI Punjab
Priety Zinta's Kings were only looking for a replacement for Brett Lee and they managed an able buy in Jerome Taylor.
The Kings also bought Ravi Bopara to add to the list of hard hitters in Shaun Marsh, Pomersbach, Hopes, Jayawardene, and King Sanga.
Not to mention Yuvraj Singh!
Formidable team that.
Delhi Daredevils
As if David Warner, Dirty Dirk, and all the other Australians that the Daredevils has been buying were not enough, they bought Owais Shah and Paul Collingwood as well.
The Daredevils just keep getting stronger with every new pick of theirs.
Shah and Collingwood just adds to their strength.
They've already got Sehwag and Gambhir. And AB De Villiers and Dilshan. And Manoj Tiwary and Dinesh Karthik.
Not to mention McGrath, Mahroof, Nehra, Geeves, and Vettori!
Mumbai Indians
They didn't have to replace anyone.
They had Sachin, Jayasuriya, Bravo and they recently traded for Zaheer Khan, an able replacement for Shaun Pollock.
Still, they had a busy auction bagging the flavour of the year, JP Duminy, who also generated quite a bidding war eventually selling for $950,000 - 3 times more than his base price of $300,000.
They also bought Kyle Mills and the Bangladesh skipper, Mohammad Ashraful.
Sachin has quite a team this year.
Deccan Chargers
The team ended bottom of the league last year.
Their CEO yesterday said he was no longer their CEO, but the owners denied it.
They replaced Laxman in the off season with Gilchrist as their captain.
Afridi is no longer available, not that that would make a difference. But the troubled cricketers, Gibbs and Symonds, both going through some sort of rehab, are there.
The Chargers have had nothing going for them.
The auction didn't do them much good either. Not to discount the abilities of Fidel Edwards and Dwayne Smith, but surely they should have tried harder.
The auction is over. The teams are stronger. The defiending champions are weaker. But they have Warne. Another has Warner. KP & Flintoff are on board as well. Exciting IPL season ahead!
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Tyron Henderson could prove to be a better buy than Watson was last year.
If I recall correctly, he's the highest t20 wicket taker in the world.
Averages 22 with the bat, 21 with the ball, and can smash it.
I'm sure Warney will get the best out of Tait too!
Thats true Suave.. I just found out that Henderson played an instrumental role in Middlesex's T20 victory last summer...
Warne sure knows what he's doing..
Suave is right about Tyrone, although i wouldn't have paid that much for him.
He is basically Shahid Afridi like with the bat. And his bowling is pretty handy, like a slightly faster version of Albie Morkel.
Oh and you have Geeves as a Delhi Daredevil, i thought he was let go?
Got that one wrong Jrod.. Geeves was let go.. my bad.
BRC
Paid too much for KP but probably this was what they needed.
CSK
Batting still looks thin for CSK, they have picked too many bowlers,any team can only play four International players, who are they going to play and who are they going to drop, Flintoff is a good pick but won't be able to make much of a difference.
They have too many fast bowlers, they needed a quality batsman since Hayden is not in form.
Rajasthan Royals
They made two good picks but the role Watson and Tanvir had in RR these guys won't be able to replace it, they will have to chalk out a new plan, their bowling looks extremely thin.
Kolkata Knight riders
Their batting looks extremely good this year, I think they should have really gone after Shaun Tait, they are desperately in need of one quality fast bowler, you can't replace Umar Gul and Shoaib Akhtar with just Mortaza.
Kings X1 Punjab
This team looks good they didn't really needed Jerome Taylor, last year their bowlers were quite expensive, they should have gne for somebody with a better econ rate.
Dehli Dare Devils
I am disappointed in them, they should have picked one quality all rounder and one quality bowler, Mcgrath might not be in rhythm because of not playing any cricket, they do not have Asif, they should have gone after JP and Shakib.
Nehra is a good addition.
Mumbai Indians
They made the most out of this auction and also gained from the trade, they are the team to beat this year.They don't need any thing more all they need is performance and leadership.
Deccan chargers
They will probably end up again at the bottom this year.
Wasim,
CSK reached the final last year without Hayden and Hussey.. Dhoni, Raina, Badrinath, and Albie Morkel were enough.. add Flintoff, Hayden, and Hussey to that and the batting is very strong.
Rajasthan Royals - Morne Morkel and Shaun Tait shud be able to fill in for Tanvir.. particularly cos Warne will be leading them. Henderson is an able replacement for Watson. And Im hearing that Watson might be fit for the 2nd half of the tournament.
KKR - Ishant Sharma has come a long way since last year. Plus with Mendis and Dinda their bowling looks good.
For KXI Taylor was to replace Lee.. Kings XI bowling relied on their Indian contingent - Pathan, VRV, Sreesanth..
Delhi got an allrounder in Collingwood though they dont really need one.. they are too strong.. Asif didnt do much for them last year and McGrath, Mahroof, Sangwan, Vettori shud be enough.. their batting is just too strong ..
Agree on the rest..
Q
Last year was last year, the teams and their combination have changed this year, CSK did good last year unexpectedly primarily because of Dhoni's aggressive captaincy, this year some of the teams have become too strong but I think they will still do good but to win it all they needed some extra support in batting.If you look at their last year scores most of the matches they played were low scoring.
As regards Rajasthan I don't think Tait will be able to perform as Tanvir did, he is too fast and normally bowlers of his breed are a bit expensive in the shorter version, but my biggest concern for them is about Henderson as Jrod said he bats like Afridi you know what it really means "inconsistency" we don't know how good of a bowler he is, last year Watson was the anchor of their batting he had a few very important contributions with the bat, I think they still have some good batsmen to rely on but Watson gave an all round performance his absence will disrupt their combination.Losing a quality all rounder is just like playing with one less player.
KKR
Any T20 team needs five to six bowlers, Ajantha is a good addition, Ishant has matured a lot, but they do have soft spots in their bowling in Dinda, Mortaza, and Ganguly good teams will attack these bowlers.
Punjab X1 their bowlers all of them were quite expensive last year they needed somebody who could control the flow of runs, but mostly they are a good team.
Very well balanced.
As regards Dehli I still believe they needed an ace bowler instead of Collingwood and Owais their batting was already too strong.
Last year they lost because of their bowling and other than Nehra they haven't added any body worth mentioning in the line up.
You can score 200 in every single match but if you don't have the bowling to defend it then it doesn't matter, McGrath hasn't played any cricket his fitness and form will be key to their success.
I agree with most of ur points Wasim.. but on CSK and Rajasthan I differ slightly in opinion.. The key to success of both the teams were their captains.. U mention that CSK got to the finals cos of Dhoni's aggressive captaincy.. if anything, Dhoni's captaincy today is vastly more experienced and more aggressive than it was last time round..
As for the Royals.. well it was Warne who brought out the best in Watson and Tanvir... I reckon Warne can even make an Afridi into a very dangerous batsman.. If Henderson won Middlesex the title, then Warne will extract even more out of him.