IPL 2018: List of Zimbabwe, other Associate nation players and their base price for the auction

The IPL fever is abuzz and the Indian fans have already begun the countdown for the auction. The auction will take place next weekend on the Saturday and Sunday. Since it is a mega-auction and there is a big pool of players available, the excitement among the fans increases manifold. There are also many big names involved in the auction. The cash-rich league also helped many cricketers build their careers. It is the biggest platform for a young cricketer to showcase his talent.

Zimbabwe and other associate players register for the auction

Often, we don’t see players from Zimbabwe and other associate nations play a great deal in the IPL. Even if these players are picked, they only warm the bench for the majority of the tournament. Ryan Ten Doeschate is the only prominent associate player to have featured in IPL. Also, he played the most number of IPL matches by an associate player. He featured in the KKR playing eleven 29 times. The all-rounder from the Netherlands scored 326 runs in 22 innings and picked two wickets in his IPL career.

Apart from ten Doeschate, no other associate player gained as much as recognition as he did. Brendan Taylor is a recognized player from Zimbabwe who was picked by the SRH in 2016. They picked him as the backup wicketkeeper for Naman Ojha. But he never got a chance to feature in the eleven.

This time in the auctions, it will be no different. Franchises are a lot smarter now and just don’t pick cricketers in huge numbers. There is proper thinking put into their auction strategy. The finances also have to be managed. So, it won’t be any easy for a Zimbabwe or any other associate player to play the IPL. Big names went unattended in recent times in the IPL auctions. For that matter, Chris Gayle was also unsold in IPL auctions before RCB replaced an injured Dirk Nannes with him.

The list of players available

However, a total of seven players from Zimbabwe and other associate nations put their names into the auction fold. Out of these seven, four are all-rounders from Zimbabwe. Malcolm Waller, Solomon Mire, Graeme Cremer and Sikandar Butt are the four Zimbabweans who registered their names in the auction.

Paul Stirling is the only other player in this pool. Nepalese bowler Sandeep Lamichhane and Canadian wicketkeeper Hamza Tariq set their base prices to 20 lakhs.

Here is the complete list of Zimbabwe, Associate nation players and their respective base prices for the upcoming IPL auctions: