‘Players paraded like cattle in IPL auction’

Auckland, January 31 

Calling it an archaic system, the New Zealand Cricket Players Association (NZCPA) has lashed out at the Indian Premier League’s players’ auction for being unprofessional and disrespectful towards the players.

“I think the whole system is archaic and deeply humiliating for the players, who are paraded like cattle for all the world to see,” NZCPA chief executive Heath Mills was quoted by New Zealand Herald. “There’s lot of good things about the Indian Premier League and it’s been great for cricket but I’d like to see it mirror the rest of professional sports in the way they engage athletes. The auction system is wrong — it’s not professional, far from it.”

In a two-day auction in Bengaluru last week, the eight IPL teams bought 169 cricketers and over Rs 400 crore was spent. 

Mills was not the only one to criticise the auction. Earlier, Peter Clinton, former Wellington Cricket chief executive, had expressed displeasure about the auction, calling it “undignified, cruel and unnecessary employment practice” in a Twitter post.

Mills said, “The players enter the auction not knowing where they are going, who their teammates are going be, who’s managing them, who the owners are — no other sports league in the world engages players on that basis.”

“We’ve seen some players play for five or six teams over the 10 years the league has been going. Coaches cannot build an affinity with players, they can’t build a long-term culture. The whole thing is very poor and players associations around the world would like to see it change,” he added. — Agencies