Four months ago,
Gautam Gambhir's
name was the first to come out of the hat at the IPL player auction.
Gambhir had been a solid but unspectacular performer for Delhi
Daredevils over the first three years, and while he was expected to be
sought after, what happened next would surprise everyone. Gambhir's
price didn't merely rise, it skyrocketed. First, it went past $1
million. Then $1.5 million. Then $2 million, the most ever bid in the
IPL. When the dust settled, Kolkata Knight Riders were the last team
standing, having pushed Gambhir's value to $2.4 million. Sold!
Kolkata followed that up by buying
Yusuf Pathan for $2.1 million and
Jacques Kallis
for $1.2 million. In 45 minutes they had spent 62% of their salary cap
on three players. It looked like madness. But there was a method in
there; one that was intended to transform Kolkata from headline-making
also-rans to actual championship contenders.
Halfway through the league stage, Kolkata sit in second place on the
points table, sandwiched between last year's finalists, Mumbai Indians
and Chennai Super Kings, and have been a fixture in the top four since
they beat Rajasthan Royals in their third game. If they can build on
their strong start, the only franchise to have never qualified for the
IPL semi-finals should have every chance of erasing that record.
It had all looked so promising back in 2008. Shah Rukh Khan gave Kolkata
star appeal, and with human headline Sourav Ganguly at the helm, the
team seemed destined for big things. Only, somebody forgot to read the
script. In their first three seasons Kolkata finished sixth, last and
sixth.
Their misery was compounded by their endless ability to attract
controversy. There was the Fake IPL Player blogger, who turned the
franchise into a running joke; coach John Buchanan's multiple-captain
theory; and Ganguly's quarrels with Buchanan and Brendon McCullum.
Kolkata had all the drama and intrigue of a Bollywood blockbuster, but
without the box office success.
"The team had to change," Arun Lal, former India and West Bengal opener, told ESPNcricinfo.
Only, this was no simple job. The house that Shah Rukh built needed more
than a fresh coat of paint. It needed to be razed and rebuilt.
As its new head, the franchise hired Venky Mysore, who had 25 years of
experience in the insurance business. Mysore had played cricket for
Madras University and understood the game. The job was a way back into
the sport for him. He took over as chief executive in September 2010,
and quickly realised that the player auction provided the perfect
opportunity for Kolkata to start over.
Mysore first asked his team to identify types of players that they
wanted - gamechangers, fast bowlers, wicketkeeper-batsmen - rather than
individuals. "You cannot afford to attach yourself to names when you are
going with an auction strategy," Mysore told ESPNcricinfo. "It is much
more the skill sets and the composition more generically."
The next step was to pick eight players for each position. Once they had
assembled their wishlist, it was time to learn how to deal with auction
pressure. "There is a certain panic that sets in when you get into that
situation," Mysore says. To deal with that panic, the team conducted
mock auctions in the weeks leading up to the event. Mysore wrote out
what he thought the other teams' strategies would be and included them
in their simulations.
By the end of the exercise they had a value for every player up for
grabs in Bangalore. But even that wasn't good enough. Mysore wanted
every edge he could find and decided to take a leaf out of a poker
player's book. The best of them can read opponents, and tell from body
language whether an opponent is bluffing or not. Mysore went to the
BCCI, got videos of the first two auctions and studied them, looking for
what are called "tells", signs that give away what another person may
be thinking.
It was this detailed preparation that allowed them to feel confident
about spending more than a quarter of their budget on one player. The
team wanted, as part of their core, "a very good Indian player, a
current international," according to coach Dav Whatmore. "There was a
choice of probably four of these and we went for Gambhir."
Similarly Yusuf was someone Whatmore felt was "very important" to their
plans of changing the team's fortunes, while Kallis was targeted for his
proven ability in all forms of the game.
But lost in the glare of all the money being thrown around was that
Kolkata bought plenty of talent on the cheap too - they picked up nine
other players, each for $500,000 or less.
"Brett Lee is a case in point," Mysore says. "When we got him at base
price [$400,000] I don't think too many people expected him to do what
he did in the World Cup. But we had done our homework. He was training
hard. He was as fit as he had ever been."
The core of Gambhir, Kallis, Yusuf and Lee was rounded out with of group
of international and domestic players to fill a number of roles.
England batsman Eoin Morgan and Netherlands' Ryan ten Doeschate add
batting depth. Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan is a second quality
allrounder, while Brad Haddin, the Australian wicketkeeper-batsman, was
to provide flexibility behind the stumps. Add the likes of Manoj Tiwary,
Iqbal Abdulla and Lakshmipathy Balaji, and Kolkata had much talent and
experience up and down the order.
The big decision, was, of course, letting Ganguly go. Perhaps only
Sachin Tendulkar is as tied to the city of his birth as the Prince of
Kolkata is. The decision, Mysore says, was based on cold cricketing
logic. Any "retained" players would be locked in for two years, with the
possibility of a third, and a 40-year Ganguly was always going to be a
risk. A section of the fans did lash out at Kolkata for jettisoning
their hero, but the team, Mysore said, always had to be more important
than a single player.
Once the post-auction domestic signing frenzy had died down, Kolkata
wound up with 20 names on its roster, the fewest among all the
franchises. A smaller squad is easier to manage tactically and
financially. "You look at a World Cup," Whatmore says. "You are playing
in a tournament for roughly the same time and you have 15 players. The
more you've got, the harder it is."
Lal backs up Whatmore's assessment that 20 is plenty. "I like this
team," he says. "It has a lot of energy. It has great balance. It has
terrific match-winners. Gautam Gambhir, Yusuf Pathan. Kallis is a great
plus. Brett Lee can turn around a game on his day.
"Shakib can be very interesting. The IPL is being played in April and May on tired wickets, so you definitely need spinners."
It took the new-look Knight Riders three games to find themselves. They stumbled
against Chennai Super Kings in the opener, and then barely hung on
against Deccan Chargers to register their first win. But it all came together
against Rajasthan.
Chasing 160, Kolkata lost an early wicket but Gambhir and Kallis
quelled any jangling nerves with an unhurried, unbeaten 152-run
partnership.
Gambhir's leadership seems to have brought a quiet calm that was missing
during Ganguly's tumultuous reign, while Kallis has provided the
solidity at the top that Chris Gayle and McCullum, for all their
explosiveness, lacked. They have delivered precisely the kind of goods
for which the franchise shelled out all those millions.
The team followed their away win by thumping Rajasthan in the
return game
at Eden Gardens, and this time the bowlers were the stars. Led by
Balaji, who uncorked one of the deliveries of the tournament to get rid
of Shane Watson, they toppled Rajasthan for 81 and waltzed to victory.
Gambhir was there at the end once again.
Having seen Kolkata demolish his team twice, Rajasthan chief executive
Sean Morris needs no further convincing. He says Kolkata are a
formidable side and expects them to be there at the business end of the
tournament. "They have some of the best players in the world. Lots of
variety in their bowling attack. They are a well-organised and well-run
unit. I always thought they would be one of the top teams."
Kolkata are targeting a semi-final spot this season and Lal reckons they
have a good shot at making the knockout stages. He ranks Mumbai Indians
and Chennai as the best teams in the tournament, with Kolkata right
behind, though he is quick to point out how unpredictable Twenty20
cricket can be. "I expected the last team to be successful. The
cricketers all underperformed. Call it ill luck. Call it lack of
gelling. Everything went wrong."
Kolkata stumbled against
Kochi and
Royal Challengers at home, but rebounded by
beating Delhi Daredevils
on Thursday. It was the lesser-known players who shone in the 17-run
win: local boy Tiwary top- scored with 61, and Abdulla took three
crucial wickets. Adbulla is now their leading wicket-taker this season
with eight, the same as Yusuf, who has yet to shine with the bat but has
delivered consistently with the ball. Meanwhile Tiwary has 194 runs at
97, just shy of Gambhir, with Kallis a little further ahead, emphasising
the depth in this team.
The win over Delhi took Kolkata above Chennai on net run rate and into
second place. Rubbing shoulders with the defending champions is a heady
place for them to be, and early vindication for stripping the cupboard
bare and restocking it.
