The IPL auctions can make any player's fortune. However, sometimes it becomes equally demotivating for them when they go unsold.
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The IPL auctions can make any player’s fortune. However, sometimes it becomes equally demotivating for them when they go unsold and go through a tough time dealing with rejections. And, more importantly, getting ignored by teams and watching your teammates fetch huge amounts can leave an impact on cricketers. And, India as well as CSK batsman Robin Uthappa opined on this matter.
This year at the mega-auction, out of a total of 590 players, only 204 were sold. Robin Uthappa, who was bought by Chennai Super Kings for ₹2 crores, said that the IPL auction can trouble a player mentally. Even though Uthappa was happy to be back with CSK, he admitted that an auction system is not good for players’ mental well-being.
“Playing for a team like CSK was something I desired, it was one of my only prayers: let’s get back to CSK. My family, even my son, prayed for that, which is special for me. I’m happy to be back in a place where there’s a sense of security and a sense of respect. There’s a backing that’s given which makes me feel like I can do anything,” Uthappa told veteran sports journalist Meha Bhardwaj Alter in an interview with News9.
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“The auction feels like an examination which you have written a long time ago, and you’re just awaiting the results. You feel like cattle (commodity), to be honest,” he said. “It’s not the most pleasing feeling, and I think that’s the thing about cricket, especially in India… everything about you is there for the world to consume and then judge and express their opinions about it. Having an opinion about performances is one thing, but having an opinion on how much you get sold for is quite something else.”
“You can’t imagine what the guys who don’t get sold go through. It cannot be pleasant. My heart goes out to guys who have been there for a long time and then miss out and don’t get picked. It can be defeating sometimes. Suddenly your value as a cricketer becomes about how much somebody is willing to spend on you, and it’s so haphazard… there is no method to the madness,” added Uthappa.
He concluded: “People have tried their best to kind of grapple around it for the last 15 years, and I don’t know if they have a clue because if you speak to a lot of the people who have been there at the auction, they’ll say ‘you know it’s so random… if you’d come later you’d probably have made more money… if you’d come earlier there’d have been enough money so you’d have made more’. I really hope for the sake of the sanity of everybody that this goes into a draft system where it is more respectful.”
