Kieron Pollard
After a breathtaking IPL 2011 season which came to an end seeing the Chennai Super Kings being crowned as the Champions for the second consecutive time, beating the Royal Challengers Bangalore. It was an exhilarating season and we saw lots of surprises and ups and down this time around. Players who were expected to shower failed to impress. Big money transfers went for nothing. The top players failed to make a mark. On the other hand, new faces and youngsters making their debut were unexpectedly the top performers and were the talking news this year around. The IPL 4 edition surely went to the domestic players who were unexpectedly the top performers in this year’s IPL edition. Unfortunately, big names, big money all went in vain, with most of the players disappointed their owners. Lets us have a look at quite a few players carrying big price tags who flopped this season.
The Big IPL Flops – No value for Money:
Kieron Pollard: The explosive West Indies player, the humungous hitter who helped Mumbai Indians win quite a lot of matches in the previous edition of the IPL was a big disappointment. He contributes not only with his batting skill, but impresses with his all around abilities of bowling and fielding. However it was not the same in the 2011 edition of IPL. Pollard was retained by the Mumbai Indians. Although, the Mumbai side made it to the play-offs, they did not have anything for the West-Indian to thank for. Usual explosive hitting were expected from the big-hitter but he was one of the flops this season. He only managed to score 146 runs at an average of 14 and bagged 10 wickets at an average of 36 throughout the league, making him one of the flops this time around.
Cameron White: Another big name who failed to give anything to their franchisee, having being bought for big money. He was purchased by the Deccan Chargers for a whooping 1.1 million dollars and the Australian was expected to show his worth. Unfortunately, the Australian came as a cropper for the Chargers. He played just 6 games and failed to shower, scoring a mere total of 104 with 31 not out being his best, adding him to the list of flops for 2011.
Robin Uthappa: The consistent performer with his hard hitting abilities attracted the Sahara group to shell out whooping price money of 2.1 million, becoming one of the highest paid players in the 2011 auction. But one shouldn’t be surprise by the huge signing, as the power packed performer was one the consistent player in the previous IPL edition and his previous performances for his former team Bangalore made it obvious for the franchises so shell millions for the star. The Pune Warriors had not doubt about his abilities and they got the former Bangalore player to play for the Sahara group. The Warriors looked a formidable side on paper, but Uthappa could not help his good looking paper side translate into an on field performance. He scored 264 runs at an mediocre average of 2006, not enough to please the Sahara group.
Irfan Pathan: Everyone expected the Baroda boy to perform and make his mark in the IPL 4 season. It was supposed to be the comeback for the all-rounder. He trained extremely hard and gave interviews about his preparations which will give him his comeback opportunity to play for India. He hoped that IPL 4 will be a launch pad which will help him get back in the Indian colours. The Delhi Daredevils bought the all-rounder for a massive 1.9 million dollars. However, he did not do justice to his big price tag and failed to shower both with the ball and the bat. He made 150 runs at an average of 18 and even though he was Delhi’s most successful bowler with 11 wickets, much more was needed to revive his team’s woeful campaign.
David Hussey: He is a very experienced T20 campaigner and everyone knows about his abilities, if one does not then you should watch the Big Bash. He surely bashes everyone out there. This is why he was bought for a huge amount of 1.4 million dollars by the Kings XI Punjab. However he too failed to make a mark and was a big disappointment for the Punjab team and owners. He played eight games for Kings XI Punjab and scored just 64 runs at a paltry average of 10.
Andrew Symonds: The former Deccan player was bought for 8,50,000 USD by the Ambanis. The Australian was a power pack performer for his former team Deccan which made Nita Ambani shell out a massive amount of money for the Australian. However, the Australian did not impress his owner, going through a struggle, failing to impress both with the bat and the ball. Symonds played 11 games for the Mumbai Indians where he made 135 runs with a top score of just 44. He couldn’t do much with the ball either, picking up just one wicket in his stint.
It is very clear from the fact that big price tags do not win you matches. It is the performances that count and not the money. The owners will surely work their minds on this and hopefully will hunt for talent rather than shelling out massive sums of money which seems to be a bad idea at the moment considering the big price tagged players faltering on a regular basis throughout the league.
Tags: Andrew Symonds, Big Flops, Cameron White, David Hussey, IPL, IPL 2011, IPL 4, Irfan Pathan, Kieron Pollard, Robin Uthappa
