Aging players left out for auction in IPL
It has been said that, experience comes with age. Some believe that experience teaches everything but if that is the case, why is there a retiring age? The IPL franchises have released some of the very experienced players like Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly.
Yesterday was the last date for the franchises to name the players they will retain or release in the coming edition of IPL.
Three teams namely, Kolkata Knight Riders, Deccan Chargers and Kings Eleven Punjab have left out all their players to be a part of the auction. Apart from these three teams, all the other teams have kept at least one of their players for the next edition
of IPL. The 2010 finalist teams, Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians didn’t make any change in their teams by keeping the same players. One foreign player and a maximum of three Indian players can be kept in the side, according to the new rules. The Mumbai
team remained unchanged with all their players. All the four players including Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh, Kieron Pollard and Lasith Malinga were kept with the side. Sachin was the top run scorer in the 2010 edition of the IPL. M.S Dhoni, Suresh Raina
and Murali Vijay will be held by Chennai Super Kings. Apart from these three players, the South African all-rounder, Albie Morkel will also be a part of the squad.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore only decided to keep Virat Kohli in the team for the next edition and the rest of the players were left out for auction. Kohli has been impressive for his national team and has compiled many runs in the recent series that
India has played against New Zealand. Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid will be in the auction after being left out from the team.
The other big name was of Saurav Ganguly who was left out of the team for the auction. Ganguly is the biggest name that has ever emerged from Kolkata. Gautam Gambhir will be in the auction for the next edition of IPL. The only player from the team is Virender
Sehwag who will avoid the auction. The abilities of Sehwag to win the matches for his team would have forced the retention of the player.
With most of the aging players not retained in the teams, there have been a few players amongst them who have been retained, following their capabilities and performances in the previous three editions of IPL. Shane Warne and Sachin Tendulkar are the two
players who seem to have no affect of age on their performance. Warne is considered as a global brand by the team to promote the Rajasthan Royals. Along with Shane Warne, teammate Shane Watson will also be able to avoid the auction.
With the retention of few of the aging players, it clearly shows that age is not considered as a universal disqualification but it is the performance that matters at the end of the day. There are some young players as well, who are retained in the squads
and the reason is only the performances they have been giving at the highest level. An example is Virat Kohli, who has performed exceptionally well and has been retained over some other big names.