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Friday, February 14, 2014

bloomer of Richard Madeley pinches Mallaya... makes Yuvi richer.. !!

Professionals get more money ! ..  in this age of commercialism, everyone tries to maximize their revenues, things are outsourced and experts command a premium ! ~ but do they pay for their mistakes or somebody else does !!!! To come under the hammer’ or ‘fall under the hammer’ are phrases which refers to something being auctioned.  The word "auction" is derived from the Latin augeō which means "I increase" or "I augment".  In market, there are fixed price shops and there are shops where you bargain, buy in the end and still rue thinking that you could have bought for a lower price !! An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder, though there are some variants too….

The man in news is Richard Madley .. the man conducting IPL player auction.  Richard Madley, who lives in Biddestone and works for Dreweatts in Bristol,  did it in 2008 for Indian Premier League, when 8 teams spent over $40 million in eight hours to ‘own’ 75 best cricket players in the world;  he was back in 2011; 2012 and now again in Feb 2014 at Bangalore.   Crores exchanged and some went for astronomical prices.   On day 1 - 212.35 - Rupees in crores  was spent in the auction. Delhi Daredevils, the only team not to retain any players ahead of the auction, spent Rs. 51.40 crore, nearly one-fourth of the total money spent. 5 players were traded for more than a million with Yuvraj Singh being bought for 14 crores of Rupees and Dinesh Karthik fetching 12.5 crores…. Luck ran out for close to 150 players of which there were a dozen and half Indian capped players too. Railways legspinner Karan Sharma and Himachal Pradesh allrounder Rishi Dhawan became the two most expensive uncapped players on the second day of the IPL player auction. Karn, who played for Sunrisers Hyderabad last season, was bought back for a startling Rs 3.75 crores (US $625,000) while Dhawan went to Kings XI Punjab for Rs 3 crores ($500,000).  On day 2 franchises spent Rs 50.25 crores ($8.38 million) taking the total spend to Rs 262.6 crores ($43.8 million). The second day of the auction saw most franchises contest fiercely for the lesser-known Indian domestic players to build their squads after they had bought the core of the team on Monday. Maharashtra batsman Kedar Jadhav (Delhi Daredevils, Rs 2 crores); Delhi allrounder Rajat Bhatia(Royals, 1.7 crores), Karnataka opening batsman Mayank Agarwal (Daredevils, 1.6 crores), MP and India fast bowler Ishwar Pandey (Chennai Super Kings, 1.5 cores),  were among the other big earners.

In some ways,  it is easy for Richard Madley  - unlike many other auctions, he need not justify the base price or speak on the merit of what was on sale.  It is not the intrinsic value but the demand for the property on sale that determines the price in Auction.  There are various ways in this modern World – the IPL player auction occurs in a plush atmosphere but in somewhat antiquated fashion. The buyers –  representatives of IPL franchisees sit in round tables and raise a paddle indicating their bid… the amount goes incremental, until there is a single buyer…. Simple !!

There has been considerable criticism on the beleaguered Kingfisher chief splashing Rs 14 crore in buying Yuvraj Singh ~ criticized as a splurge coming in as it did when the Kingfisher Airlines is mired in financial difficulty.  

The left-hander Yuvi has not in been great form, has had forgettable time in recent International outing, fitness dogging him – yet the team chose to buy him at a very high price …. and as it happens – the liability of the Company or the financial position of a Company is separate from that of the individual, be its owner, promoter or…. that way, one need to see this in isolation not linking with the business empire of the liquor baron.  

The game is a leveller – the auction is a revelation … it brought cheers to some, brought more to the ground – with no takers or low prices, much lower than what they would have anticipated. In life and on field,  there are no comparisons !!! The fact also remains that Royal Challengers Bangalore could have acquired Yuvraj for a substantially lower amount, had it not been for some drama / a colossal mistake by the conductor during the auction. Reports state that auctioneer Richard Madley had closed the deal for Bangalore at Rs 10 crore before Kolkata Knight Riders protested that they were still in the fray. After another round of intense bidding, Yuvraj was the beneficiary as his price climbed by Rs 4 crore.

Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals made the opening bids for Yuvraj before Vijay Mallya, the owner of Royal Challengers, raised the paddle to bid at Rs 3.5 crores (approx $583,000). The bid escalated fast and reached the 10-crore mark. The confusion arose, as the auctioneer apparently failed to notice the paddle raised by Kolkata Knight Riders. Knight Riders withdrew their bid at Rs 13.5 crores ($2.25 million) before Mallya raised another Rs 50 lakhs to close the debate. Mallya is quoted as sating that Virat Kohli, the Royal Challengers' captain, was "keen" on getting Yuvraj. That extra Rs 4 crores was somewhat unfortunate, but the auctioneer has the sole discretion," Mallya said. "Everybody saw him look around the room before the hammer fell but he then chose to continue the bidding. So life must go on."

Mallaya later lodged an official protest with the IPL governing council, against the Knight Riders over the Yuvraj bid. "For me the hammer went down at 10 crores for Yuvraj Singh," he told Times Now. "We have officially written to the IPL governing council for the decision to be overturned." Ranjib Biswal, the IPL chairman, confirmed the RCB complaint but said the final decision was that of the auctioneer. "They filed a complaint asking Yuvraj should be given to them at 10 crores and not 14, but we can't do anything now," Biswal said.

So, it was a bloomer by the expert which bled somebody else  ~ downunder Brisbane, Bruce Oxenford had the simple task of pressing one of the 2 buttons in front … he pressed one and claimed that he had pressed the wrong one !! ~ the auctioneer Madley whose only work was to watch out the bids, failed noticing one….

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

14th Feb 2o14.

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