The IPL8 livestock sales

Who imagined in 2008 that we would still be here in 2015 doing the Indian Premier League player auctions every February? Or even that the IPL would still be a thing?

Nevertheless, here we are, and here below is a spreadsheet summary of the overseas signings for IPL8 at today’s auction, with their sale prices in rupees converted into Bitcoins, Dogecoins, Aussie dollars and other novelty currencies: Continue reading “The IPL8 livestock sales”

Not so ridiculous quote-du-jour

“This is the second most important day in world cricket, according to me. The first was in 1994 when the monopoly of Doordarshan came to an end when we won the court case.”

– Inderjit Singh Bindra, member of the IPL Governing Committee, discussing the IPL player auction, OutlookIndia.com, 20.2.08

Call me a cynic, but Bindra is not too far off the mark with this self-serving observation.

Hello, my name is Ashwell Prince. I got passed in at auction.

It’s barely two years since I waxed lyrical on these pages about Ashwell Prince following his attractive 119 in the Sydney Test of 2006. He now has seven Test centuries under his belt, but his Twenty20 stats are almost non-existent.

Prince, otherwise known as Lot 54, failed to attract a bid at his reserve price of $175000. He finished Wednesday’s IPL Mumbai Meat Market as the only one of 77 lots (I mean, players) unsold at auction (not including the Yousuf Formerly Known as Youhana who is having contractual difficulties with the ICL). Continue reading “Hello, my name is Ashwell Prince. I got passed in at auction.”