Why the IPL needs an upgrade

As IPL evolves, it will need to upgrade its process of selecting players, writes Desh Gaurav Chopra Sekhri in the Indian Express. While it is in the enviable situation whereby the world’s best cricketers and overall talent pool, with very few exceptions, are usually available for selection, Sekhri writes, the process of player selection, retention, and transfer will have to develop to keep pace with the rapidly evolving (and escalating) pay scales and related requirements to ensure parity and equitable distribution.

Universally, the auction system is the one aspect of the IPL most feel requires immediate change. A system designed to select players on the basis of market forces, the auction is conceivably meant to determine players’ values, along the lines of a player draft as per the US leagues or any other professional sports league. Its implementation, however, leaves much to be desired, and this is due to the fact that draft systems or player trades/ loans evolve over time, and are not based entirely on individual parameters that revolve around money.