“HammerMan” speaks about the Smartest Person in the Auction & He’s beyond Imagination

The Indian Premier League is still two months away but the drama starts tomorrow as the player auction takes place in Bengaluru. 351 players including 121 international players and 23 capped Indian players will go under the hammer of the famous, Richard Madley tomorrow.

When asked about the event, Richard didn’t back away. He said that the role is not very different from the umpires as he does not stand any nonsense. He said, “My role as the IPL auctioneer is not too dissimilar to an umpire. They like that I am authoritative, clipped in my pronunciation, rigid in my increments and I don’t stand too much nonsense.”

Adding on, he said, “Once a year some say I’m the most influential man in world cricket.”

 

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The ‘Hammerman’ went on to explain the bidding wars. According to him a player has to come under two categories. The “good enough” category and also the “availability” category! Only this ensures that the player will be sold. Richard explained it & said, “There are two boxes that need to be ticked: whether the player is good enough and their availability.”

He explained this by giving a football-related example. He said: “Few English players have ticked both in the past. Franchise holders want to build a team to take them to the final, and if a player won’t be there at the end, they may think twice. After all, no Premier League club would sign a footballer that misses the end of the season and likewise to a fan of the IPL, that’s not good enough.”

There are a total of eight English players entering this auction this time. Ben Stokes, Eoin Morgan and Chris Woakes with base price INR 2 crores. While Bairstow has based himself at 1.5 crores, Jason Roy and Alex Hales are based at 1 crore each.

However the smartest person among them all is Tymal Mills. According to Richard Madley, since the left-arm pacer has based himself at a mere price of 50 lakh this is smart work from him. Richard explains this as, “How very sensible of him – he’s been well advised. People ask me about tactics and I always remind them it’s when my hammer falls, not when the bidding starts. So be brave. I am a big eBay-er and start a lot of my stuff at 99p. I know it’s worth more but it gets people watching, competing, and 99p can become £99 very quickly. So I am encouraged by his reserve”.

Richard also said that for players, IPL is not just money. “It is not all about the money and I’m sure the England boys have talked to Jos Buttler. He is playing for Mumbai Indians for a second season this year and so already knows how much there is to learn from sharing the dressing rooms with the word’s best players,” he said.