3 minute read
The IPL has been such a huge success that it makes perfect sense to slavishly copy every aspect of it, making it much easier for everyone to make direct comparisons and see exactly how the short-format competition pales in comparison. The Hundred are going to have auctions, everyone!
If you were to ask British sports fans what aspect best represents the worst aspects of the IPL, a large percentage of people would say: the auctions.
Even though it doesn’t really stand up to much criticism anymore, most of us in this country still feel that sports teams are defined by (a) the regions they represent and (b) the people who take the field to play the game. The identity of football and provincial cricket clubs is based in large part on their best-known and longest-serving players, many of whom will also have been local residents.
Since it requires players to be picked up intermittently for redistribution, a player auction is definitely against this. Each HR restart means that fans will then be invited to either (a) continue to support a team that will now have a noticeably different pitch presence, or (b) switch allegiances and follow a favorite player at another club.
For many people, none of these options are quite right.
But that’s what the IPL does, and the IPL is huge, and IPL teams now own a number of Hundred teams, so that’s what The Hundred is going to do.
How will it work?
One hundred franchises were allowed to sign or retain up to four players each prior to the auction. To give an example, Manchester Giants have retained well-known Mancunians Jos Buttler, Noor Ahmad, Heinrich Klaasen and Liam Dawson.
Granted, they’ve also retained Sophie Ecclestone, who is from the North West at least, and looking around at the other teams, if you squint hard enough you can almost detect a hint of regional identity: Harry Brook at Sunrisers Leeds, say, or Will Jacks at MI London – although that’s about it. (Speaking of regional identity, where do we stand on the name ‘Mumbai Indians London’? The most generous assessment is that it is a wonderfully broad celebration of contemporary urban multiculturalism.)
Apart from the four player allowance, everything else has gone back into the bag and an auction will be held in London on March 11 and 12.
The IPL auction is a huge deal and this one will be the same, only the amounts will be smaller, and there won’t be as many top players, and the franchises they will sign with will be B-grade feeder teams for the real players in the bigger tournament.
Again, the big selling point here seems to be that this is the same as the IPL, just less so. Personally, we’d aim higher, but The Clone Roses, Oasish and The Faux Fighters will tell you there’s money to be made in this kind of thing.
#holding #player #auction #watereddown #version #IPL