IPL Auction 2024: How coaches from Gautam Gambhir to Ricky Ponting will impact IPL franchise picks

Former India opener Gautam Gambhir has moved base from Lucknow to Kolkata. (Screen grab/YouTube)

For the past four years, the Coca-Cola Arena in the heart of Dubai has played host to several concerts and events - including performances by Russell Peters, Trevor Noah, Bryan Adams, and Asha Bhosle. This arena has captured the minds of many fans its sheer grandeur. It is therefore ideal that as the Indian Premier League (IPL) is hosting its first-ever player auction outside the country, the venue is this arena with a capacity of around 17,000.

Concerts are packed to the brim with fans getting immersed in the experience. The IPL player auction arguably has a lot more drama. It is an open house with players being traded for high sums and franchises breaking the bank to pick up their favoured cricketer.

Some choices make sense, some do not. Most often you end the IPL auction day with a lot of surprises, which makes you wonder just how they arrive at a decision. The whole process of consultation while the world waits with bated breath on the final price for a cricketer adds to the drama. A musical concert can perhaps never quite match up to that.

But one key aspect of an IPL player auction is to just look around the tables to understand who is at which table. Every year the dynamics change just like with the players’ prices. There are times when head coaches move tables, even the mentors do. Sometimes the rest of the support staff do change loyalties annually depending on the result of the previous season.

But most often the fortunes of an IPL side are decided then and there on an auction table. The choices you make empower the captains during the season proper. It either ties the captain’s hands or empowers him to make bold moves on the field.

This time the auction sees several new faces on every side, some faces have changed loyalties, while some others have been around on the same table for a very long time.

Take the freshest face in an IPL, Justin Langer, the new head coach at Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). A volatile character who was too much to handle even for an Australian dressing room, Langer makes his first foray into the world’s biggest cricket tournament. Langer spent four years with the Australian side, but then had a falling out with the key players. Cricket Australia (CA) offered him a short-term extension and Langer quit in a huff last year.

The same Aussie players, some of the biggest names, are in the fray to be picked by IPL franchises. It makes you wonder how Langer’s recent past will impact his choices as the new LSG head coach. The interesting bit is that Langer and the LSG captain Lokesh Rahul are diametrically opposite personalities. So, IPL 2024 will make the perfect scenario to test the theory of opposites attract.

The other fresh face in the IPL this time is Royal Challengers Bangalore’s new director of cricket Mo Bobat. Now there is a chance that most may not have heard Bobat’s name, but he is an old-hand in cricket. He has been the man behind putting systems in place in English cricket at the under-19 level and their pathway programmes. He was the Performance Director at England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). He has had a successful run in England. He now teams up with an old IPL hand, Andy Flower. While at the ECB, Bobat and Flower used to work together at the backend.

Andy Flower switches from Lucknow to Bangalore, but is an experienced hand in the coaching sector. His successful stint with the English team and his famous fallout with superstar Kevin Pietersen makes for an interesting back story.

When you talk of back stories, no franchise has as many interesting stories to tell as Sunrisers Hyderabad, considering the number of changes they make annually. They have changed their support staff more often than any other franchise. This time they have entrusted the job of head coach to Daniel Vettori, former New Zealand captain. Vettori has previously held a similar job at Bangalore, but makes a return to the tournament after five years. He has big shoes to fill in as he comes in place of former West Indies captain Brian Lara.

The rest of the coaching staff across franchises represents stories of comebacks.

Former India opener Gautam Gambhir has moved base from Lucknow to Kolkata. Gambhir is back to the franchise he led so successfully and won two titles with, only this time as a mentor. Gambhir’s starring role last season was in an angry duel with Virat Kohli which made more headlines that Lucknow’s failures. Hopefully with shrewd tactician like Chandrakant Pandit, the Kolkata head coach, by his side, Gambhir is a lot calmer in the 2024 season. Gambhir’s hand can clearly be seen in the retentions by the Kolkata side and it will surely be seen in the way they make choices at the auction table.

Mumbai Indians welcomed their one-time key fast bowler Lasith Malinga back into the fold, this time as bowling coach. Malinga was with Rajasthan Royals till the 2023 season, only to return to his base once again. The interesting bit is that Malinga has swapped places with former New Zealand bowler Shane Bond. Till the 2023 season Bond was with Mumbai, but he now moves to Rajasthan.

Mumbai and Rajasthan have retained most of their other staff members. So, the decision-making process will not change as much as with the other franchises.

Punjab Kings have also retained most of their staff but have added one key individual to the set-up. Former India all-rounder Sanjay Bangar makes a surprising return to the fold as Head of Cricket Development. Almost a decade back Bangar was the head coach at Punjab only to be sacked following a fall-out with the owners. But Bangar returns to Punjab in what can be termed as a surprising turn of events. Bangar was head coach at Bangalore till IPL 2023, but was clearly not the key decision maker as the former Director of Cricket Mike Hesson took most of the calls. Nothing much would change this time in Punjab too.

It would be the same old story at Delhi Capitals too as they have pruned their staff from last season, but the decision makers remain the same. Ricky Ponting will continue to play a key role as the head coach, but with one key addition to the mix, Sourav Ganguly who is Director of Cricket. How these two strong willed minds arrive at a consensus will make for compelling viewing.

Delhi had a season to forget in 2023, hence changes were warranted like with other franchises.

But that was not the case with the finalists of the previous edition, Gujarat, and Chennai. Gujarat has retained all members of their staff, except of course their skipper Hardik Pandya.

Chennai on the other hand is the most consistent franchise in the tournament retaining their staff almost every year. They do not make reckless changes and it is clear who runs the show. Thala or their skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has the last word on all cricketing matters.

So, when you consider all the cast and crew involved in the franchises you can imagine how much drama can unfold in one of the biggest arenas in the Middle East. A billion plus dollar property like the IPL deserves all this and more as the biggest trading day ever in cricket opens for 77 slots with around Rs 262 crores to spend!

Are you ready to spend…not money but time watching the drama with an all new auctioneer to boot…