A look at the best and the worst buys from the
auction based on players' performance in IPL 2014
Yuvraj Singh made news during the
auction for being the most expensive purchase of the IPL, at INR 14 crore,
while Pravin Tambe - one of the leading wicket-takers in this IPL - received no
bids from other teams before being retained by Rajasthan Royals with a
right-to-match card that depleted their purse by only INR 10 lakh. How did
these buys fare for the teams? Who ended up being the most profitable purchase
of the IPL? Which team spent their purse money most productively? This piece
makes an attempt at answering such questions.
Performance on the cricket field is
not easily quantifiable: it cannot be measured purely by the runs scored by a
batsman or the wickets taken by a bowler. A quickfire 30 in a crunch situation
of a chase may turn out to be of greater value than a 60 earlier in the
innings. A wicket of an in-form opposition batsman might carry more value than
the wicket of a tail-ender. And there is the question of how to value
wicketkeepers' contributions, fielding efforts, catches taken etc. Surely, the
catches taken by Kieron Pollard and Chris Lynn would be worth a few crores, if
not more?
