Delhi missing from Daredevils

Buying local players hasnt quite been the IPL teams priority this season.

With Pradeep Sangwan and Mithun Manhas being the latest local players to sign up for other franchises,only two things seem to suggest that the Daredevils are indeed a national capital-based IPL team: the prefix Delhi and Virender Sehwag.

In a curious move,the franchise refrained from aggressively bidding for home players in the auction earlier this month,allowing among others captain Gautam Gambhir and Ashish Nehra to go,while taking the risk of going for relatively unknown and bits-and-pieces players. After the auction as well,only one Delhi player Unmukt Chand got a Daredevils contract. It means the squad has only four players Sehwag,Yogesh Nagar and Vikas Mishra being the other three from the catchment area.

The local flavour is set to reduce further with Sehwag,who was retained,unlikely take the captaincy back after stepping down last season. In such a scenario,their most expensive buy,Irfan Pathan,may be asked to lead the side. While the Daredevils management remains tight-lipped over captaincy,it brushes aside the issue of fewer local players in the team.

Local players dont matter,what really matters is how it (the team) is run. Delhi Daredevils is more valuable than any of the individuals, says PB Vanchi,Director,GMR Sports,the company the runs the team. Let me tell you every single player wanted to stay back,even Gautam Gambhir,but it was for us to decide. Honestly,every franchise wants to run into decent economics,$9m in itself is a big purse but (still) we had to be judicious about who we wanted to retain.

Of course we could have retained three or four players but retention had lot of penalties to it. We had to strike a balance between our choice and the cost of retention, he adds.

Another senior Daredevils official insists that the absence of many local players wont affect the teams fan base. Fan support is a complicated thing. Its not just based on having local players but on team performance and presence of big players. We have the most iconic Delhi player Virender Sehwag and we have some exciting talent, says Amrit Mathur,Chief Operating Officer.

This is a city-based concept,all right,but if Australian players can come in and play for Delhi,why not players from other states come in and play. If Dhoni and Suresh Raina can play for CSK (Chennai) then its okay. Look at Mumbai; apart from Sachin and Zaheer,how many Mumbai players are there? Its a decision based on lot of factors, reasons Vanchi.

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The sources say that with the Delhi players being much sought after by the IPL teams,the cost was huge factor. Gambhir was bagged for a record $2.4m by Kolkata Knight Riders,while Nehra was sold to Pune for $850,000.

Others players such as Shikhar Dhawan and Ishant Sharma didnt figure much in the teams shopping list while star batsman Virat Kohli wasnt part of auction as he was retained by Bangalore Royal Challengers. Rajat Bhatia followed Gambhir to Kolkata while Pawan Suyal was signed up by Mumbai. Sumit Narwal,who played for the Rajasthan Royals last season,is the only seamer who is yet to get a contract,even as DD have put together a new-look pace attack.

Ahead of the auction,the Daredevils management had decided to focus on Indian fast bowlers and overseas batsmen. One has to understand that we made certain decisions before the auction. We want our Delhi players but the decision is theirs. We wanted to retain Sangwan,Bhatia and Manhas but eventually its their choice whether they want to stay back, Mathur says.