IPL too hot for star cricketers to handle

With IPL completing a month, the lesser mortals have churned out the biggest returns for their team owners. Players who were roped in for paltry sums have performed as well and, in many cases, even better than star cricketers who were brought in with hefty signing amounts.

ET analysed moolah run rate (MRR) and moolah scalp rate (MSR). MRR is the signing amount offered to a player divided by the total runs scored by him. MSR is the amount paid divided by the number of wickets picked by him. Lower the MRR for a batsmen, the more returns he has generated for his team and similarly a bowler with a lower MSR has brought superior returns.

To keep the statistics manageable and relevant, we discounted the batsmen who have made at least 200 runs cumulatively till May 18.

Among batsmen, the top scorer till date is Delhi Daredevils’ Gautam Gambhir. Though he figures among the top performers, he is outstaged at the top slot by emerging cricketer Shaun Marsh who is representing Preity Zinta’s Mohali team. The son of former Australian open batsmen Geoff Marsh has scored at an MRR of Rs 4,000 per run.

He is closely followed by Shikhar Dhawan (Delhi) who has an MRR of Rs 4,110. Compare that with the likes of Sanath Jayasurya whose MRR stands at Rs 1.16 lakh. This is due to the hefty signing amount paid by Mumbai Indians’ team owners Reliance Industries for the explosive Sri Lankan batsmen.

Among the other top 10 batsmen on the basis of their respective MRR include: Venugopal Rao (Hyderabad), Shane Watson (Jaipur), Gautam Gambhir (Delhi), Graeme Smith (Jaipur), Yusuf Pathan (Jaipur), Adam Gilchrist (Hyderabad), David Hussey (Kolkata) and Rohit Sharma (Hyderabad).

A similar analogy can be drawn for bowlers where the top performers are ranked purely with respect to wickets. Among those who have picked 10 or more wickets, the lowest MSR has been recorded by Manpreet Gony and D Kulkarni who are representing Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians, respectively.

Both the players have picked 11 wickets each at an MSR of Rs 1.09 lakh/wicket. Compare that with South African bowler Shaun Pollock who has picked 10 wickets for the Mumbai team at Rs 22 lakh/wicket. Other top bowlers include Yo Mahesh (Delhi), Ashish Nehra (Mumbai), Sohail Tanvir (Jaipur), Shane Watson (Jaipur), Dwayne Bravo (Mumbai).

Incidentally, the top five wicket takers during the first month of IPL are all specialist bowlers: RP Singh, Shane Warne, Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan and S Sreesanth. However, as against those who have topped the MSR charts, these bowlers have picked wickets at a rate of more than Rs 10 lakh/wicket given their high signing amount.

Among the players who have failed to match up to their high pay packets are Herschelle Gibbs (Hyderabad), Shahid Afridi (Hyderabad), Jacques Kallis (Bangalore), Yuvraj Singh (Mohali), Suresh Raina (Chennai), among others. While MS Dhoni, the highest paid IPL player roped in for a staggering Rs 6 crore, has made his 332 runs at an MRR of almost Rs 2 lakh per run.