Franchises strategise for best buys

The player auction for the second IPL is expected to be a much more cerebral and focused exercise than last year's inaugural event, with franchise officials saying they would enter the bidding hall in Goa on February 6 with a maximum of four or five players on their list and hope to take home a maximum of two.

Like the first auction, allrounders are expected to be the most valuable picks but the big difference this time is that the focus will be on players who have shown Twenty20 form in the last season.

IPL rules specify that teams can have only a maximum of ten foreign players - Delhi Daredevils have already reached the limit with the signing of Dirk Nannes, the Victoria fast bowler. With most of the franchises having around eight players each from the last auction apart from a sprinkling of uncapped foreign players signed this year, even officials are expecting only about 15 players to attract any serious interest next month.

However, a preliminary list - accessed by Cricinfo - of players who would be available at the auction shows that almost 70 players are in queue for the US$16 million that the eight franchises are eligible to spend together. The list is now being pruned and updated by IPL officials, who hope to ideally have around 50 players in the mix.

As expected, Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff are two players who will be auctioned though the eligibility of England players is still a matter of discussion between the ECB and the IPL, which wants a two-year availability commitment. The preliminary list also includes 15 Australians, including seven internationals, and five players from South Africa including JP Duminy, who is being seen as a 'hot pick' after his recent performance in Australia.

There are 14 Sri Lankans listed too, two from Pakistan, five from the West Indies, including Andre Fletcher, who starred in the Stanford Super Series, and nine from New Zealand (see box for select names). Shakib-al-Hasan, No 1 on the ICC ranking for ODI allrounders, tops the list of seven from Bangladesh and his outstanding performance against Sri Lanka has meant that franchise officials now value him "at around US$500,000".

No Indian players figure on the list but some of the Under-19 players who were picked up on one-year contracts last year may be made available, though most of them, like Rajasthan Royals' Ravindra Jadeja and Bangalore Royal Challengers' Virat Kohli, have already been snapped up again.

According to IPL officials, the deadline for franchises to send their nominations for players to be put for the auction is January 28 - February 1 for English players at the latest. This would give the IPL just enough time to get clearances from various national boards and sign player consent forms by February 5, the auction eve.

"This year, it is about consolidating the squads," Joy Bhattacharya, team director, Kolkata Knight Riders, said. "All the other bits are in place and the auction might provide me with what is the last bit that needs to be put in place.

"Last year each team was trying to get 13 to 14 players, including Indian cricketers, from the auction. This year, there might be a maximum of two players each team will take. Between the eight franchises, I will be very surprised if more than 15-16 will be chosen. There will be 80-90 odd players in the auction but only 15 will be actually chosen, so it will be a bizarre auction."

Apart from "dual-role cricketers" who have proven Twenty20 records, franchise officials say there is still space for an outstanding cricketer who can bring in the eyeballs. "There will always be space for cricketers who apart from performance will bring with them the aura and the brand image from a sponsorship point of view," Tim Wright, chief executive, Deccan Chargers, said. "Like Kevin Pietersen."

But another franchise official said this definition would apply to only two cricketers in the current scenario - Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff. "It is unlikely that a Jacques Kallis kind of deal will happen this time," the franchise official said. Kallis, who is yet to find his feet in the Twenty20 format, was bought by Bangalore for $900,000, purely on his international stature. The South African failed to create an impact and his team, led by Rahul Dravid, finished seventh.

Pietersen is being actively sought by Bangalore this time and is expected to fetch around US$1.5m. Mumbai and Chennai are in the fray for Flintoff, the other big draw. A Bangalore official admitted that they would go for Pietersen "because the team right now needs a maverick and a star in the dressing room".

Rajasthan, the inaugural champions, credit a major share of their success last year to a conscious auction strategy of going for performers, rather than big names. "The rest of the franchises have learnt this the hard way and we won't be surprised if they follow our path this time," a Rajasthan official said.

Interestingly, Rajasthan has considered reversing their strategy this time and go big on one player, possibly Pietersen, who has close ties with the franchise team management, including Shane Warne, the captain, and support staff Darren Berry and Jeremy Snape. But as of now, it is being projected as an "unlikely outcome".

"The ideal case is to have one Englishman to start the season and pick an Aussie who will finish off," Kolkata's Bhattacharya said. "Also Pakistan are likely to play an ODI series against Australia between April 20 and May 10. So Pakistan players can start and return to finish the tournament. These are some of the options."

Amrit Mathur, the chief operating officer of Delhi Daredevils, admitted teams would go into the auction with a "limited requirement" as most of the slots were filled last year. "There are two things driving the auction. One is basic team need. The second is if somebody is attractive in terms of sponsorship and who can be sold for a higher price next year. It is like getting someone like David Beckham - he may not play but he has an appeal beyond the field of play. Otherwise, I would go for a promising youngster and make some money on him."

Deccan's Wright agrees the auction will more focused than last time. "Teams and coaching staff have had time to scrutinise the performances over the last year," Wright said. "Teams clearly have one or maybe two or a maximum of three components left to fill in. Hence, the focus will be on Twenty20 statistics in terms of strike-rate and so on, rather than a big name."