IPL auction: 35 cricketers from region look to make cut

With just two days left for the Indian Premier League (IPL) mega auction, cricketers from Punjab and Chandigarh are keeping their fingers crossed to get picked by a franchisee for the upcoming season.

The registration closed on November 4. Seven players from Chandigarh and 28 of the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) have registered for the auction to be held on November 24 and 25 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

While Indian left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh carries the highest base price from the region at Rs 2 crore, seasoned bowler Siddharth Kaul has a base price of Rs 40 lakh. All other players have the base price of Rs 30 lakh each.

This year, a total of 1,574 players, 1,165 Indian and 409 foreign cricketers, have registered for the auction. Of them, 320 are capped players and 1,224 uncapped cricketers. Thirty players are from associate nations.

While players refused to come on record to safeguard themselves from any controversy before the auction, many of them claimed to have attended trials of top IPL franchisees, which were meant to assess their performance. “Many players from Chandigarh had attended some trials (practice sessions) organised by the scouts of the teams (IPL). So, everyone now is waiting for the auction,” said a player, who was part of a team in the last IPL edition.

Many uncapped youngsters are expecting to get the attention of the region’s only IPL team, the Punjab Kings. Its management have appointed Ricky Ponting as the head coach. The former Australian skipper had favoured youngsters like Rishabh Pant and Prithvi Shaw.

“Punjab Kings are the undisputed leaders in financial flexibility by having a massive Rs 110.5 crore budget, which is by far the largest auction purse. And Ponting being its head coach, the regional players stand a good chance of getting into the team,” said a former member of the support staff of an IPL franchisee. A coach, who also performs scouting duties for a team, said: “There are many players (listed for the auction), who were part of the teams in the previous editions but didn’t perform well. They are unlikely to get the pleasing eyes of the selectors. Youngsters are likely to get picked easily, considering their base price and performance. The spotlight will be on Arshdeep, who is likely to get bagged by a leading franchisee.”

UT players

Raj Angad, Manan Vohra, Nishunk Birla, Gaurav Gambhir, Abhishek Saini, Anirudh Kanwar and Bhagmender Lather, all have a base price of Rs 30 lakh.

PCA players

Arshdeep Singh: Rs 2 crore, Siddharth Kaul: Rs 40 lakh; Anmolpreet Singh, Nehal Wadhera, Harpreet Brar, Naman Dhir, Mayank Markande, Pukhraj Mann, Sanvir Singh, Gurnoor Singh Brar, Harnoor Pannu, Aryaman Singh Dhaliwal, Ashwani Kumar, Salil Arora, Jass Inder Baidwan, Emanjot Chahal, Anmol Malhotra, Karteek Sharma, Tejpreet Singh, Baltej Dhanda, Aradhya Shukla, Krish Bhagat, Sohraab Dhaliwal, Vishwanath Pratap Singh, Kartik Chadha, Prerit Dutta, Uday Saharan, Abhay Choudhary, all have Rs 30 lakh base price.