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NZCPA slams 'humiliating' IPL auctions

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What’s the story?

Days after the mega auctions of the Indian Premier League, the New Zealand Cricket Players Association has voiced their concern over the entire auction process and has also called it very humiliating for the players concerned.

"I think the whole system is archaic and deeply humiliating for the players, who are paraded like cattle for all the world to see," Heath Mills, chief executive of the New Zealand Cricket Players Association, was as quoted by the New Zealand Herald.

The details

Mills is not the person to express his displeasure over the process. Earlier Peter Clinton, a former chief executive of Wellington Cricket had also labelled the IPL Auction as an undignified, cruel, and unnecessary employment practice which was followed in the medieval ages.

Mills also added that although IPL has done a great service to cricket and that many players want to take part in the league to bolster their skills and pedigree, the fact that they enter the auctions not knowing which team will lap them is not a very healthy practice.

He also added that owing to this constant churn in the IPL, which forces players to float around between different teams, coaches cannot build an affinity with players, which is a huge impediment to building a long-term culture.

In case you didn’t know…

A total of 578 players went under the hammer during the auctions which took place on January 27 and 28 in Bangalore.

While Ben Stokes was the most expensive player with INR 12.5 crore for Rajasthan Royals, Jaydev Unadkat emerged as the most expensive Indian player. The left-arm seamer will also play for Rajasthan.

What’s next?

If reports emerging out the IPL are to be believed a draft process could replace the auctions in the near future.

Hemang Amin, the IPL's chief operating officer, has informed that a draft system, which is a globally established system, will take place of the auctions.

Author’s take

For all the merits in the IPL and for everything that it has done to the game of cricket, the auction process is certainly not very cordial for the players concerned and hence this concern is quite genuine.

Dignity forms the crux of cricket, and in many ways, a player's name coming up for sale and then going unsold erodes a huge chunk of pride. Hence, this process should be done away with and the IPL with all its means can actually get rid of it for good.

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