Book extract

The (IPL) team auctions were held on 24 January 2008 and the first-ever player auctions on 20 February 2008, when the Indian team was playing in a triangular series in Australia with Sri Lanka as the third team. After the team auctions, five “icon players” were identified, who would be the face of the franchises based in their city. For Mumbai Indians, it was Sachin Tendulkar. Rahul Dravid was Royal Challengers Bangalore’s marquee player, Sourav Ganguly was for Kolkata Knight Riders, Virender Sehwag for Delhi Daredevils, and Yuvraj Singh for Kings XI Punjab. Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals didn’t boast anyone from the respective states/cities deserving of the icon status. That left Deccan Chargers, for whom V.V.S. Laxman was the designated icon.

As the rules stood, the icon player would get 15 per cent more than the most expensive player of the team procured at the auction. Laxman voluntarily surrendered his icon status so that his team owners could utilize the additional amount at the auction and augment the cricketing activities run under the aegis of the Hyderabad Cricket Association. Even if he was not the icon, Laxman was the captain of the franchise and one of the first names in his bucket list at the auction was Rohit. Deccan Chargers left no stone unturned in their effort to acquire Rohit’s services, shelling out US $750,000 for the 20-year-old who, at the time of the auction, was not even eight months young in international cricket.