The Indian Premier League's (IPL) first ever Players' Draft did what
was expected. The IPL family that MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina formed for
eight long years first got hit by the 'spot-fixing' tsunami and is now
separated - at least for two years. But the facts associated with
Ravindra Jadeja are more tragic.
One of the heroes of India's
Test triumph over South Africa of late, Jadeja has quite a strange
relationship with the IPL, hitting as many valleys as peaks.
The allrounder, who on Tuesday entered the top five of ICC Test
allrounders' rankings, has been picked by the Rajkot franchise as one of
their five players for the 2016 and 2017 IPL seasons.
While
playing for his hometown team in the IPL should make him happy, there is
a not-so-welcome fact about the teams that Jadeja has played for in the
cash-rich league.
ALSO SEE Jadeja grabs career-best No. 5
The
left-arm spinning allrounder has appeared for three teams in the IPL so
far - Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Kochi
Tuskers Kerala. While that's no news, what is, is the fact that all
three have had a controversial relationship with the league - two are
serving a ban and one does not exist any more.
That's, of course,
just a coincidence; but not the one that Jadeja or Intex Group Director
Keshav Bansal, who owns the Rajkot franchise, would want to be
mentioned at all. But at the end of the day, it's a fact, albeit an
unfortunate one for the 'Rockstar' once Jadeja was for RR.
Some interesting takeaways from the IPL Draft:
1. It will be the first time in IPL history that Dhoni and Raina will play for two different IPL franchises.
2. Other than Rahane by Pune, none of the two franchises picked any other Indian player from RR.
3. As opposed to 7 CSK players, only 3 RR players got a new IPL home.
4.
Among the 10 players picked, 7 have captained their national team in
one format or the other - four in Pune and three in Rajkot.
5. Among the five players picked by Rajkot, four are allrounders.6. Rajkot incidentally is also part of Jadeja's home region team Saurashtra.
7.
Jadeja has played for three IPL franchises - CSK, RR and Kochi Tuskers
Kerala. The first two are serving a suspension and the third one no
longer exists.
8. No team picked Shane Watson or Michael Hussey. Incidentally, both are from Australia and both retired.
9.
Both the franchises exhausted their limit of Rs. 39 crore and will now
have Rs. 27 crore to complete the squad at the Feb 6 players' auction
next year.
10. The 10 players picked are from India (5), Australia (2), South Africa (1), New Zealand (1) and West Indies (1).
PUNE (New Rising):
MS Dhoni (ex-CSK) - Rs. 12.5 crore
Ajinkya Rahane (ex-RR) - Rs. 9.5 crore
R Ashwin (ex-CSK) - Rs. 7.5 crore
Steven Smith (ex-RR) - Rs. 5.5 crore
Faf du Plessis (ex-CSK) - Rs. 4 crore
RAJKOT (Intex):
Suresh Raina (ex-CSK) - Rs. 12.5 crore
Ravindra Jadeja (ex-CSK) - Rs. 9.5 crore
Brendon McCullum (ex-CSK) - Rs. 7.5 crore
James Faulkner (ex-RR) - Rs. 5.5 crore
Dwayne Bravo (ex-CSK) - Rs. 4 crore
Players not picked
Indians:
Stuart Binny, Dhawal Kulkarni, Abhishek Nayar, Ashish Nehra, Irfan
Pathan, Sanju Samson, Mohit Sharma, Rahul Sharma, B Aparajith, Ankush
Bains, Rajat Bhatia, Eklavya Dwivedi, Deepak Hooda, Vikramjeet Malik,
Mithun Manhas, Ronit More, Karun Nair, Pawan Negi, Ishwar Pandey,
Pardeep Sahu, Dinesh Salunkhe, Barinder Singh Sran, Ankit Sharma,
Pratyush Singh, Pravin Tambe, Rahul Tewatia, Sagar Trivedi, Dishant
Yagnik.
Foreigners: Kyle Abbott, Samuel Badree, Ben
Cutting, Matt Henry, Mike Hussey, Chris Morris, Kane Richardson, Dwayne
Smith, Tim Southee, Juan Theron, Andrew Tye, Shane Watson.