Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has said that some franchises want a mega auction before IPL 2025 as they aren’t happy with their current squad and they also want to make changes. However, he also added that a similar thing didn’t help with the desired results for those franchises previously as well.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra said, “Some franchises say – ‘How will we win if you don’t allow the reset or reboot button to be pressed? Our team is not good currently and we want to dismantle it totally. We might keep a few people and leave everyone else, and we want to start afresh. Otherwise, it’s unfair because you have to do a mega auction every third or fifth year’.”
ALSO READ: Hardik Pandya shares happiness after winning back the love of fans
“It was heard that it was the Punjab team. It might be the Delhi team or the Bengaluru team because they have never won to date and if you do like this, they would never be able to win. The counterquestion to that is – You haven’t won even though it was happening every three or five years,” the former India opener added. “You should have won but since you have not won, you are slightly upset. Since you are upset, you want it to happen once again. If you keep playing auction-auction repeatedly, IPL (franchises) won’t be interested at all in investing in any player.”
However, among the franchises part of the IPL since the beginning, the Punjab Kings (PBKS), Delhi Capitals (DC) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) are yet to win a title. While PBKS and DC finished ninth and sixth respectively in IPL 2024, RCB were knocked out in the Eliminator by the Rajasthan Royals (RR) as well. The veteran also opined that mega auctions should be stopped at some stage to incentivize franchises to develop their players as well.
ALSO READ: “Shubman’s captaincy is very good” – Ravi Bishnoi on Shubman Gill
“Some franchises say – ‘Let’s invest, we should be made a part of it, we want to find, scout and invest, and it’s our responsibility to prepare players’. Then whether they find Ashutosh (Sharma) from somewhere or give opportunities to Shashank (Singh), there will be many such players who they want to find and invest in, and they need encouragement for that. There should be a time when you say that mega auctions should be done away with. Allow them to start building a team together. You might allow a squad of 25 only but allow them to keep players with them for a long time,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
