Once a year some say I’m the most influential man in world cricket: Richard Madley

Indian Premier League is a long two months away but the frenzy starts tomorrow with the player auction in Bengaluru. 351 players, 121 international players and only 23 capped Indian players would go under the hammer of Richard Madley tomorrow.

When asked about the IPL auction Richard was quick to answer. He said that his role is not too different from the umpires as he does not tend to 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.”

He also said that for one day of the year, he is the most influential man in world cricket. His actual words were, “Once a year some say I’m the most influential man in world cricket.”

The ‘Hammerman’ as he is fondly known went on to explain the bidding wars. He said that the player has to come under two categories. The “good enough” category and the “availability” category. Both these categories need to be positively filled and the player will be sold. Richard explained it in a better way, he said, “There are two boxes that need to be ticked: whether the player is good enough and their availability.”

Also read- What the franchises would look for in the IPL 2017 Auction

He further explained that 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 eight English players entering this auction this time, Ben Stokes, Eoin Morgan and Chris Woakes basing themselves at the highest price possible; INR 2 crores. While Bairstow has based himself at 1.5 crores, Jason Roy and Alex Hales are based at 1 crore each.

But the smartest person among them all is Tymal Mills according to Richard Madley. The left-arm pacer has based himself at a mere price of 50 lakh and the auctioneer thinks this is smart work from him. Richard explains this beautifully. “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,” explained Madley.

Richard also talked about IPL being an experience for the foreign players. He thinks that it is more than only 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.

The 61-year-old also stated that the days of picking players on their Test performances and based on sentimental are far gone. Take Sourav Ganguly for example, he went unsold at the 2011 auction. For which Madley said, “The auction process is a pure and fair way of obtaining market prices for a product. And if the market doesn’t want it, it won’t be sold, be it a King George III mahogany bureau or the former captain of India.”