When Pradeep Sangwan was picked over Virat Kohli in 2008 U-19 IPL draft
Virat Kohli might not have won IPL 2016 but ended it with the Orange Cap and having firmly cemented his position as one of the best batsmen in the world. Although Royal Challengers Bangalore acquired the services of Kohli since the inaugural edition, it was only because he was passed on by Delhi Daredevils.
The inaugural IPL took place soon after India won the Under-19 World Cup and sixteen members of the squad were picked by the various IPL franchises based on the “draft” system that was akin to the one used by various US Leagues and all the Under-19 players in the draft
Each team had the option of picking two Under-19 players and Delhi Daredevils, who got first pick opted to pick Pradeep Sangwan over Virat Kohli, the victorious U-19 captain as their first choice. As Sangwan had already played in the Ranji Trophy, Delhi had to pay him $50,000 and not $30,000, as was decreed for all the U-19 players.
While Delhi would have had high hopes on Sangwan, the fortunes of the player that they picked and let go have gone in opposite directions. While Kohli has gone on to become IPL’s leading run-scorer and become India's Test captain and one of the pillars of the Indian side across all formats, Sangwan is yet to play a game for India.
Where the other U-19 players went?
Among the other U-19 players, Rajasthan secured the services of Taruwar Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja, Kolkata signed Siddarth Kaul and Iqbal Abdulla and Mohali, who would go on to be called as Kings XI Punjab, picked Tanmay Srivastava and Ajitesh Argal.
Mumbai bought Saurabh Tiwary and Manish Pandey, while Napoleon Einstein and Abhinav Mukund went to the team from the state they hail from, Chennai. Bangalore signed Shreevats Goswami apart from Kohli, while Hyderabad passed on their two drafts.
For the first season as there was no previous record to go by, the draft system was used. Sundar Raman, CEO of IPL at the time, explained:"The franchises will be allotted numbers, from 1 to 8, at random on the basis of lots, and the players will be ranked by the IPL governing council. The franchise assigned the number 1 will get the chance to pick any player of their choice and then the second franchise can select their player and so on.
"After eight players are picked in this manner, the order of the bidding gets reversed. The eight franchise will have the first choice to pick their player, then the seventh franchise can select the player of their choice and so on. The franchises can also choose not to pick any player.”
All the Under-19 players in the draft were set a salary of US $30,000 and the system meant that there was no clear rule about catchments and that is how Virat Kohli ended up being snapped up by Bangalore after Delhi got first pick.
Although Sangwan represented Delhi for three years, he wasn’t as big a success as they would have hoped. While he has more IPL titles than Kohli that will come as little consolation to the Daredevils, who could have had the future Indian batting star in their ranks.