Image file of CSK cricketer Robin Uthappa
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) cricketer Robin Uthappa has made some powerful statements about Indian Premier League (IPL) auctions and how it has been conducted over the years. Uthappa, who was bought by CSK for a base price of Rs 2 crore in a major auction held recently in Bengaluru, said that participating in an IPL auction made him feel like a “buffalo” and also compared compare it to waiting for the results after “checking”. “Uthappa continued and even advocated for a draft system instead of the usual method of buying players.
“The auction is like a test you wrote down a long time ago, and you’re just waiting for the results. You feel like a (commodity) cattle, to be honest,” Uthappa said in one interview with news9live.
The right-handed hitter explains what goes through a cricketer’s mind when his name is put up for auction, which he feels isn’t the most “pleasant feeling”.
“It’s not the most pleasant 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 an opinion. Having an opinion on the performance is one but having an opinion on how much you’re selling for is another matter,” he added.
The 2007 T20 World Cup champion also explained how difficult it is for a cricketer to know his true position as a player as IPL auctions often determine it through over how much money someone is willing to spend on a cricketer.
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“You can’t imagine what those who don’t sell go through. It can’t be pleasant. My heart goes to those who have been there for a long time and then missed out and didn’t get picked. It can be beaten at times. Suddenly, your worth as a cricketer becomes the amount of money someone is willing to spend on you, and it’s a mess… no method People have tried their best to wrestle with it 15 times over the years, and I don’t know if they have a clue because if you talk to a lot of people who were at the fight price, they will say ‘you know it’s random…if you came after you’d probably have made more…if you had come earlier there would have been enough money for you to earn more’. I really hope for the sake of everyone’s sanity that this will go into the bill of exchange system. more respect.”
Uthappa played 46 ODIs and 13 T20Is for India and also won IPL in the past with Kolkata Knights Riders and with CSK last season.
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