Onus on Pawan Negi to prove his credentials

Last Friday, Pawan Negi was on Cloud Nine. One Saturday, he had scaled cloud 8.5. I’ve taken the license of a paradox to highlight how his life has taken a dramatic twist over just two days.

A surprise selection to the India team for the Asia Cup and T20 World Championship, the left-arm spinner from Delhi capped a `dream spell’ fetching Rs 8.5 crore the next day in the IPL auction — the highest for an Indian player.

In the process, Negi upstaged marquee names like Yuvraj Singh and Ashish Nehra. Indeed, Negi was the second highest purchase, after Shane Watson (Rs 9.5 crore to Royal Challengers Bangalore), leaving behind even a megastar like Kevin Pietersen.

Countless fans, aficionados and experts remain befuddled by the IPL auction. If accomplished players like Hasham Amla, Aaron Finch, Martin Guptill — to name just three — are unsold (at the time of writing this piece they still were), what is the cricketing logic at work

I must confess that I have not been able to crack the code. My surmise is that while conventional cricket logic does play an important part it is not necessarily the only one at work in IPL auctions.

In combination with such logic are other factors, the weightage of which can differ from team to team: financial health of the franchise, risk appetite of owners/CEOs. And, oh yeah, their egos!

However, the fascinating dimension to these auctions is that when it is completed, all teams seem to be of equal strength! Mere big names do not guarantee a win, as `minnows’ Rajasthan Royals showed by winning in the first year; or RCB being unable to win yet despite all their big guns.

Over the past eight years, therefore, the selection procedure has evolved in its own quirky way to optimise the value of the player-purchase purse, get greater bang for the back rather than just fall for marquee names.

Where this process has got hardened is in talent scouting for young talent, and willy-nilly, far more in the ‘market’ of Indian players. Negi’s rise to eminence — in the IPL and for India colours — must be seen in this context.

The IPL has usually been a splendid platform in pitchforking young players into the consciousness of fans and selectors.

Negi’s case seems a departure to the extent that the massive price paid for him has come on the heels of his selection to the India squad for two major T20 tournaments.

But on closer scrutiny, it is not such a surprise. Saturday’s auctions threw up several young and relatively unknown Indian players who were sold for huge amounts: on ratio to base price, far higher than even Negi: M. Ashwin, Nathu Singh and Karun Nair, for example.

T.A. Shekhar, former India fast bowler attached with the Delhi franchise, justified the price paid for Negi by saying that the young bowler `had moved to another level,’ in the past year.

Not every player got this favour and it is reasonable to believe that those who did, had been researched thoroughly for their ability. I am labouring this point to counter the belief that Negi is in the India squad only because of the benevolence of M.S. Dhoni, who was his captain in the IPL last season.

This denies Negi credit for substantial improvement, which his fellow players and coach at Delhi (for whom he plays domestic cricket), and mocks Dhoni’s desire to win. He is not so foolish to stymie his own future by plumping for mediocrity.

I feel for poor Manish Pandey, so unlucky in not making the T20 squad after his sizzling century in the last ODI against Australia and his consistent performances over several seasons now..

But it was not necessarily Negi who nicked him. So young Negi is the toast of the country, but he needs to be wary.

Being bought for a big price does not guarantee success or more money in the next auction. There are several examples of one-season wonders who have fallen by the wayside.

The onus on Negi (and by extension, others like him) now is to prove his credentials, more particularly I dare say in the India colours. If he does that, his price in the IPL can only get better.