IPL Auction: Daredevils opt for Delhi flavour

NEW DELHI: Delhi Daredevils have been basement dwellers of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the last couple of seasons. Will the tale be any different this year? It is hard to predict from their buys at the auction in Bengaluru on Saturday.
Much like the last two years, the Daredevils were the last off the blocks during the IPL-9 auction as well -choosing not to pick a single cricketer from the `Marquee' list.The GMR-owned franchise had released 10 players from their squad, including last year's biggest buy Yuvraj Singh -bought for Rs 16 crore -and Sri Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews.
What no one had bargained for was the fact that the Daredevils would get into a bidding war with Rising Pune Super Giants for Delhi allrounder Pawan Negi. It resulted in the auction's second highest buy, even though Negi is yet to make his debut in India colours.
“Did we want to pay Rs 8.5 cr for Negi? I think not. But you can't help it during an auction when another team has same amount of interest in the same player. At the end of the day, five Indian national selectors have picked him for the World T20 squad so they must have seen something in the all-rounder. During the auction oo, it was Dhoni's team which was bidding aggressively against us which means the Indian captain also has faith in Negi's ability,” Daredevils CEO Hemant Dua told TOI.
Negi is not the only Delhi player bought by Daredevils at the auction his time around. The franchise also opted for U-19 opener Rishabh Pant or Rs 1.9 cr and left-arm paceman Pawan Suyal for Rs 10 lakh. The team might not be the strongest one on paper but it certainly has some local flavour this year.
“If you look at the players we have retained the focus was on youth. The average age of the squad is around 2425 which is what we want to focus on,” Dua said.
The team, however, still lacks on he star quotient and a match-winner with the willow -which has hampered them in the last couple of season. Guys like Chris Morris (Rs 7 crore), Sanju Samson (Rs 4.2 crore) and Carlos Brathwaite (Rs 4.2 crore) are all utility cricketers without be ing phenomenal talents with the bat. Two out of these three are from the banned Rajasthan Royals, a decision that could have been influenced by former Royals' director of cricket Zubin Bharush who is now part of Daredevils camp.
“The preparation for the auction was a joint effort by the team. Zubin's efforts were of course quite helpful and he's a great addition to the team,” the Daredevils CEO said.
UNCERTAINTY OVER KOTLA
The franchise is still hoping that the Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA), the host association of Ferozeshah Kotla, will pull out all stops to prevent World T20 games going out of the venue. “The DDCA officials have been working very hard and no one wants World T20 to go out of Delhi. But some things are out of their hands now, Dua said.
Asked about the Daredevils' plan if World T20 gives Delhi a miss, Dua said, “We might have to look at differ ent options apart from Kotla. There isn't much time for the start of IPL in April, so we also have to look at alternative plans. We can't wait for DDCA to secure NOCs beyond a certain time.”