IPL 2018 Auction: 5 memorable incidents in auction history
From the very first season, the IPL auctions have gathered a lot of attention. Every year, cricket pundits and fans get together and have a go at predicting the outcome of various players in the auctions.
Year after year, pundits and fans and sometimes even players themselves are left startled. There have been enough cases of familiar superstars going unsold and lesser known players hitting the jackpot.
The auctions do not fail to disappoint with it's continuous drama in the form of hard-fought battles. It isn't short of controversy either as cases have arisen wherein franchisees have decided to place a bid just as the gavel goes down in favour of another team.
Let's take a look at some of the most memorable incidents across the ten-year history of the IPL auctions:
#5 Sourav Ganguly goes unsold in the 2011 auction
In the 2011 auction, reputation counted for little as a lot of cricket's veterans found no takers. Sourav Ganguly, a.k.a. 'Dada', doubled his base price to USD 400,000 prior to the auction, a decision that in hindsight he would come to regret.
However, the decision wasn't entirely unwarranted as he was coming in to the auction at the back of an impressive 2010 IPL season, where he added 493 runs to his name. However, the first three seasons of the IPL showcased how youngsters have more of a 'T20 mentality' than the ODI and test-cricket playing veterans.
Franchisees clearly reflected this thought in the 2011 auction as many other veterans such as Sanath Jayasuriya, Brian Lara, Chris Gayle, Mark Boucher and Graeme Swann went unsold.
There could have been other factors behind Dada not getting a single bid. The Knight Riders didn't prosper under Ganguly's captaincy as they failed to qualify for the playoffs in all three seasons. Also, though Dada could accumulate runs, the strike rate at which he would do so was unsatisfactory.
All this being said, at the end of the day Saurav Ganguly was one of the biggest brands in Indian cricket then and it was shocking not seeing a single bid being made for him, especially from his home team, the Kolkata Knight Riders.
Ganguly is among the most famous personalities in Kolkata and his angry fans staged multiple protests in the Bengal capital following the 2011 auction. Luckily for him, Ganguly was signed by the Pune Warriors post the auctions, where he played for another two seasons before retiring.