IPL 2022 Auction: Hugh Edmeades reveals his SPECIAL PLANS – Cricket enthusiasts all over the world are gearing up for the IPL 2022 auction on Saturday. A total of 600 players will try to fetch bidders on that day, and more than the franchises and the cricketers, the onus of making the event a grand success will be on the man who will be orchestrating the entire show – Hugh Edmeades. Follow InsideSport.IN for live updates.
IPL 2022 Auction: IPL auctioneer Hugh Edmeades reveals his SPECIAL PLANS to InsideSport on how he will prepare for the auctions
Edmeades has been an auctioneer for 38 years and has been an integral part of this competition in 2019. We recently caught up with him to learn all about his preparation process, what he expects from the auction & will IPL gets FIRST 20 CRORE PLUS SALARY Player?
Check out what he had to say:
Q. Firstly, can you share your feelings about being called to orchestrate another IPL auction?
Edmeades: I was obviously delighted to hear from the BCCI asking me to conduct the 2022 IPL auction here in Bengaluru on the 12th & 13th Feb.
IPL 2022 Auction: IPL auctioneer Hugh Edmeades reveals his SPECIAL PLANS to InsideSport on how he will prepare for the auctions
Q. You have been the auctioneer for the past three seasons of IPL, but this will be your first mega auction. How excited are you?
Edmeades: As you will remember, the 2021 auction was due to be a mega auction, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was decided to postpone it until 2022 and just have an interim one instead. This decision was perfectly understandable (and, in my view, correct), but naturally, I was disappointed not to have the opportunity to conduct a mega auction. So that said, you can imagine how excited I am to have the chance to be taking the two-day auction this year.
Q. You will be auctioning 590 players across two days, and the auction could run for 12+ hours across these two days. You are enormously experienced as an auctioneer, but have you ever been involved in an auction that runs this long?
Edmeades: During my 38 years as an auctioneer, I have taken plenty of two-day auctions, but admittedly, none lasting a potential 12+ hours. However, I am not at all fazed by the prospect of being on my feet for up to six hours each day. Mentally and physically, I will be splitting the sessions into “bite-size pieces” and taking the opportunities to regroup during the breaks in the auction.
Q. An auction this big is bound to take a toll on everyone, but you will have the most difficult job of keeping everyone excited throughout its length. From an auctioneer’s perspective, what is your preparation like?
Edmeades: Because of the unknown factors of which franchise will be bidding for which player and how much they are going to bid for him, the excitement will be self-generating. In most of my auctions, I have a “ball-park” idea as to what each lot might sell for. My experience in IPL auctions is very different.
For example, last year, who would have expected Chris Morris to achieve a record price, selling for Rs 16.25 crore, when the bidding had started at a mere Rs 0.75 crore? For me, a lot of the excitement comes from expecting the unexpected and this is something I cannot prepare for. The adrenalin created by the unexpected, keeps my personal excitement at a high level which in turn helps to keep the bidders’ excitement level equally high.
IPL 2022 Auction: IPL auctioneer Hugh Edmeades reveals his SPECIAL PLANS to InsideSport on how he will prepare for the auctions
Q. You have sold some really expensive players over the last three years, but prices are expected to be higher than ever before this time. Do you have a ballpark figure in mind that you are expecting for the most expensive player from this auction?
Edmeades: With each franchise being given an increased purse of Rs 90 crore, it is likely that individual prices will also increase.
I don’t have a specific figure in mind, but I would be surprised if the Rs 20 crore barrier is not broken this year.
IPL 2022 Auction: IPL auctioneer Hugh Edmeades reveals his SPECIAL PLANS to InsideSport on how he will prepare for the auctions
Q. A viewer usually knows for which players there will be a full-fledged bidding war. Can you please tell us how it is from an auctioneer’s perspective? Say, when you will pick up someone very famous like David Warner from the bag, are you saying to yourself “Oh, this is going to last long”?
Edmeades: I learnt a very good lesson when I offered my first two players in my first IPL auction, back in 2019. The first out of the bag was Alex Hales and I thought, “Great, he’ll be keenly bid for”. What happened? No one offered a single bid for him. The second out of the bag was Martin Guptill and I thought, “Great, he’ll be keenly bid for”. What happened? No one offered a single bid for him. So, no, I have no idea how long the bidding is going to last (if it starts at all) for any player.
IPL 2022 Auction: IPL auctioneer Hugh Edmeades reveals his SPECIAL PLANS to InsideSport on how he will prepare for the auctions
Q. While the basic trade remains the same, how different is a bio-bubble dictated auction from a pre-COVID auction? What are the challenges?
Edmeades: Over the years in the rostrum, I have learnt to read bidders body language which helps me gauge their thoughts – are they really out of the bidding when they are saying “no more”, or are there a couple of more bids left in them? The main challenge for me in bio-bubble auctions, when the bidders are required to wear masks, is that I can no longer read their faces – a crucial part of their body language!
IPL 2022 Auction: IPL auctioneer Hugh Edmeades reveals his SPECIAL PLANS to InsideSport on how he will prepare for the auctions
