All the pre-deadline-day talk, deadline-day talk and post-deadline-day talk revolved around Gujarat Titans’ skipper Hardik Pandya and his return to Mumbai Indians for the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League. Not many were convinced how this would work out but two things were amply clear:
1) Hardik Pandya was set to move to Mumbai Indians from Gujarat Titans.
2) Mumbai Indians, at that point, didn’t have the purse to afford Pandya.
With just Rs 0.05 crore in their purse, and even the additional Rs 5 crore that the teams are set to receive for the mini-auction on December 19, Mumbai Indians were well short of Pandya’s league fees of Rs 15 crore.
The release of 11 players (Chris Jordan, Duan Jansen, Hrithik Shokeen, Jhye Richardson, Jofra Archer, Mohd. Arshad Khan, Raghav Goyal, Ramandeep Singh, Roley Meredith, Sandeep Warrier, Tristan Stubbs) before the deadline did beef up their purse to Rs 15.25 but Pandya’s all-cash deal meant Mumbai Indians had no option but to let go of an expensive signing to first afford the Indian all-rounder and then have enough in the bag to fill in some crucial blanks at the auction.
The waiting game began when the clock touched 5 pm on November 26 and more suspense and drama was in store the moment all teams announced their respective retentions and releases.
Pandya was still the GT captain in the list provided until then but the deadline was only for retentions and releases and the trading window was still very much open, and under the BCCI / IPL rules — will remain open until December 12.
The masterstroke
This is where MI played their card and completed an all-cash transaction with Royal Challengers Bangalore for Cameron Green — thd same all-rounder they had bought at mini-auction in Kochi last year for Rs 17.50 crore, the second most expensive signing in history of the Indian Premier League.
For MI, the math to get Pandya back was simple. They had no option but to let go of Green but instead of handing him a raw deal by releasing him into the auction pool, the five-time IPL champions clearly looked after one of their own and ensured he doesn’t have to go through a pay cut.
Who knows what would have happened had Green gone back into the auction pool. Another Rs 17.50 crore bid was clearly not on the cards and this is why MI deserve a lot of credit for the masterstroke where they first identified the player they wanted (read Pandya) and then ensured a fair deal for the player they released (read Green).
After the retentions and releases were submitted, RCB had the biggest purse of Rs 40.75 crore and their past interest in Green didn’t make it too difficult a transaction to get through. At the mini-auction in 2022, RCB started the bidding and went aggressively after Green and even with a purse of just Rs 8.75 crore, they kept raising the paddle until the bid touched Rs 7 crore.
When RCB pulled out of the race, Delhi Capitals joined in and both MI and DC were engaged in an intense bidding war before MI secured the all-rounder’s services with a record bid of Rs 17.50 crore.
‘One family’
Time and again, Mumbai Indians have proved why the “one family” tagline is not just for social media hashtags and engagement but a feeling and emotion which is strongly injected in the way they operate both on and off the field.
Whether it’s taking care of players like Mohsin Khan and Rasikh Salam during career-threatening injuries or grooming the uncapped Indian players with tours of England in the off-season, the MI set-up is nothing but a big extended family which players, and even their families, crave to be part of.
Yes, there have been some debatable signings and bids in the past but more often than not, there is a lot of method in the way they run the franchise. From the intense scouting process, not just restricted to India, to proper camps before preparing their auction shortlists, the clarity in operations and priority to players is an ideal template for other teams in the IPL.
And the handling of the current situation involving Green and Pandya was another addition to the many “one family” stories as even in a business deal, it was ensured that the Aussie, who’s signing excited Mumbai Indians think-tank the most in Kochi in 2022, wasn’t deserted.
Comments
0 comment