Former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has stirred up a debate with his latest opinion. He feels something strange might have happened with the rules of IPL before the mega auction.
Gavaskar pointed out that the amount given to uncapped players was raised suddenly and he believes this might have been done just so Chennai Super Kings could keep MS Dhoni in their team for ₹4 crore.
Let’s look at what Gavaskar said.
Was the uncapped player fee raised just to fit in MS Dhoni?
In a column for Sportstar, Gavaskar wrote that the ₹4 crore cap for uncapped players might have been raised only to make sure CSK could retain Dhoni.
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Since Dhoni hadn’t played for India since 2019 and didn’t have a BCCI contract anymore, he technically became an “uncapped” player based on the new rule.
"A whole lot of the players bought for huge amounts simply fade away as their hunger and drive are satiated. To the franchises, it perhaps doesn’t matter as they may feel it’s good riddance," wrote Gavaskar.
"Indian cricket takes a bit of a beating at the loss of any player, whether he has been successful or not. To accommodate MS Dhoni, who became an uncapped player before the auction last year, the limit was raised to Rs 4 crore," he added.
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Did CSK take advantage of the rule?
It’s not clear if this rule was made only for Dhoni, but it definitely helped CSK. Keeping Dhoni for ₹4 crore without facing the auction saved CSK a lot of money and they still got their leader.
Why does Gavaskar believe big money affects performance?
Gavaskar said that giving too much money to uncapped players might actually hurt their growth.
"In all these years, it is hard to recall an uncapped player bought for huge numbers who has justified his inclusion in the team,"
"Maybe over the next couple of years, he may get a bit better with experience, but if he is playing in the same local league, then that chance of improvement doesn’t get much better," Gavaskar wrote in his column.
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He also mentioned that the pressure of a big price tag can impact a young player’s mindset, "What does happen is that if in the next auction his price comes down, then the pressure of expectations also comes down and the player plays a lot better," he added.