IPL Auction Vs. NBA Drafting–An Insight

With another season of IPL nearby, lets take a look on the auction procedures of these two games and what good does these procedures do to their respective formats of the game. First, lets start with the IPL, the Indian Premier League which is being the center of debate every year whether it contributes to the game or does it kill the real essence of the game – CRICKET.

IPL Auction:

Well – as we all know, IPL auction procedure is pretty simple. It is held every 3 years and then the players are bought by the franchise for 3 seasons of the game. As the regular rules of auction, the process is quite simple with all the teams having given the maximum limit for the amount they can spend on players, each team can bid for every player it thinks will add value to its team and can go ahead with buying the players at whatever be the cost they are bid to.

Clearly, the players do prefer the franchises which try to pay them more or give them off the field contracts such as advertisements, brand endorsements etc.. This doesn’t do any good to the game as franchises with more off the field value tend to attract better performing players and the teams down the chart stay down there every year.

Clearly, the players play for the franchise, but not for the game or to contribute something to their game when it comes to IPL and doesn’t actually focus on their team’s performance or rankings, but work hard towards their individual performance and eye on more bid rate the next season. Does this do any good to the game ? Do these players develop the standards of the game ? I guess No.

NBA Drafting:

The NBA drafting is totally different from that of IPL, where in the teams that have finished at the bottom of the list the previous year tend to get the first pick for players coming out of universities and state leagues. In this manner, the teams with worst performance rate get a chance to pick a better performing players for the next year, thereby boosting their chances of getting up the list in the next season.

For the 11 non-playoff teams that season, the team with the worst record would have 11 chances (out of 66) to obtain the first pick, the second worst would have 10 chances, and so on. Similar to the previous system, this weighted lottery system was also used only to determine the first three picks, while the rest of the teams selected in reverse order of their win-loss records.

Thus, each and every team will get their chance every season to better their performance, get quality players on their board and the players too, play for their team. The interaction of the top players of the game with some of the players in the lower rung will help the players at the bottom to increase their knowledge of the game, tactics, improve their performance on par with the better players in the team etc., This really does contribute to the betterment of the game on a whole.

Though Money plays major role in these two formats, it is the NBA, which is ahead of IPL in terms of contributing and adding value to the game, giving valuable experience to entry level players and thereby increasing their dedication to perform better for their team. Well – I guess IPL needs to study the procedure of drafting if it really decides to add value to the game, not the franchises.