Busy R Ashwin not amongst TNPL team owners’ top pick

Expected to be the first pick among the top category players, Ashwin was given the pass not just by the first bidder Thoothukudi, he was ignored by the next five teams too as the No 7 bidder Dindigul lapped him up as their first choice. 

And if Ashwin was given the pass by six teams, there is a valid reason for that. 

Sivanthi Adityan, owner of South Chennai team, Chepauk Super Gillies, said his was a conscious decision. “We did not want just a captain who will not be available for many matches,” he reasoned. 

The TNPL will be held from August-end to September when India play the West Indies and then host New Zealand. Chepauk’s first choice was explosive all-rounder R Sathish. 

The player draft in the TNPL is vastly different from the IPL in that there is no auction and the player pool is available to all the eight teams, the first choice going to the No 1 bidder. When all the eight finish their first pick, the second choice is given to the top bidder and the selection by order goes on and on until all of them have lapped up a maximum of 19 players. 

The players are divided into three categories, the India caps (Rs 5 lakh, 4 lakh and 3 lakh), those who played in BCCI-held tournaments and others (Rs 1 lakh, 75,000, 50,000). 

Former India international VB Chandrasekhar, who owns the Tiruvallur team and was sixth in the bid ranking, said he would also not go by names and reputation. Chandrasekhar, who was the last person to let Ashwin go by, said he would also have gone on to pick Dinesh Karthik first, like Thoothukudi did. “A good wicket-keeper and a very good batsman, he will be the first choice for many, if not for all. Of course, you don’t have a Dhoni everywhere,” he said.