The representatives of the Hero Indian Super League team owners occupied round tables at premium hotel in the city on Tuesday and Wednesday and followed the simple process of announcing the name of player twice and sign the dotted lines on a legal document then and there to confirm selection of a particular player for their side.
The ISL promoters IMG-Reliance-tar Sports chose the draft selection process, unlike in the IPL auction where the franchise owners had to raise the paddle to indicate their bid for a player before the auctioneer Richard Madley hammered the mallet down on the lecturn to signal the end of an auction of a player.
While the IPL team owners mulled over and kept the auction process interesting and thrilling by raising the quantum of money, the ISL franchises took fleeting moments on many occasions to announce the player’s name and name him twice holding a microphone in hand.
The draft run by sports-show anchor Mayanti Langer offered five minutes to each team to select a player for each of the fourteen rounds; but Team Pune probably took less than 15 seconds to select their first player Lenny Rodrigues from the basket which had 84 Indian players.
Pune was beaten hands down by other team owners who took five or even ten seconds. This happened in the first two rounds with teams having made their choice well in advance. The Delhi Dynamos though probably utilised almost five minutes to choose its first player. All teams had technical experts and coaches; Kerala Blasters had the services of coach Trevor Morgan.
The media had the benefit of the closed circuit television to follow the draft as the teams went ahead picking players according to their strengths and also listen to Baichung Bhutia’s views at intervals. Mayanti and Bhutia highlighted the "buzz aspect’ several times, but clearly the "buzz’’ was the missing element that was all pervasive at IPL auctions.
IMG officials explained that the ISL, which has taken three and half years to become a reality, would evolve gradually and may eventually choose the auction process of selecting established Indian and overseas players. "Around Rs. 24 crore has been spent on Indian players over a period of two days. IMG has never been part of such an exercise elsewhere in the World (for a competition like the ISL). I was in Brazil for the World Cup and the mention of football in India lit up the eyes of some people there. It is fulfilling to see this happen,’’ said Jefferson Slack, Senior Vice-President, IMG Global Football Development.
Bhutia though would like the auction to replace the draft process straightway in 2015. He wants the Indian players to get more. "Maybe double or even treble than this," he said with a wry smile.
