Chennai Super Kings bought former India batsman Robin Uthappa for Rs 2 crore at the Indian Premier League (IPL) mega auction in 2022. Uthappa is 36 years old, but he was instrumental in Chennai Super Kings winning the IPL 2021 title.
Uthappa scored 115 runs at a strike rate of 136.9 in four IPL 2021 matches, including a crucial 63 against Delhi Capitals in Qualifier 1. However, Uthappa now believes that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) should consider ending the auction because cricketers are treated as ‘cattle’.
Robin Uthappa in IPL 2021
Robin Uthappa is one of the few cricketers to have played in every season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) since the tournament’s inception in 2008.
In the final, Uthappa played a brilliant innings to help CSK put up a massive total against Kolkata Knight Riders. The CSK management was so taken aback by his knock that they decided to bid for him instead of their mainstay Suresh Raina at the mega auction.
Uthappa on IPL Auctions
Being in an auction as a player, according to the 36-year-old, is not the most pleasant experience because people tend to judge a player based on how much a franchise is willing to pay for his services.
“The auction feels like an examination which you have written a long time ago, and you’re just awaiting the results. You feel like cattle (commodity), to be honest,” he said. “It’s not the most pleasing feeling, and I think that’s the thing about cricket, especially in India… everything about you is there for the world to consume and then judge and express their opinions about it. Having an opinion about performances is one thing, but having an opinion on how much you get sold for is quite something else,” Uthappa said.
Uthappa, who has scored 4,722 runs at a strike rate of over 130 in 193 IPL matches, admits that it can be discouraging when a player goes unsold and it appears that his or her value has dropped suddenly.
“You can’t imagine what the guys who don’t get sold go through. It cannot be pleasant. My heart goes out to guys who have been there for a long time and then miss out and don’t get picked. It can be defeating sometimes. Suddenly your value as a cricketer becomes about how much somebody is willing to spend on you, and it’s so haphazard… there is no method to the madness. I really hope for the sake of the sanity of everybody that this goes into a draft system where it is more respectful,” he added.
