IPL has changed the Indian cricket fabric forever as it has seen the rise of countless Indian cricketers from the very scratch followed by some rampant display from the world-renowned stars leading the show for them. Before the tournament started, when for the first time, it was announced that the entire tournament will be undergoing an auction process, there was some serious heat that followed.
However, if you believe that it was just the fans and the experts who had to say otherwise, actually the Indian cricketers also had a similar thought process going wild in the dressing room. Revealed in an interaction, Sehwag said that the players were approached by Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri in the first place with the idea.
Sehwag said, “It has been a while, the kids have grown up, they are playing cricket now so it does feel like we have grown up. I can never forget the day we were briefed for the first time.” The first auction happened when India was touring Australia.
He further added, “We were in Australia. Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri approached us and said that there is this thing called the Indian Premier League that is going to happen and they were asking us to give them all our rights. We were wondering if this league will really be a success or not. We are giving all our rights but then what if we end up getting nothing for it.” Sehwag concluded, “But they made sure that we understand that it is going to become a very big league in the future. Whatever rights you give to this league, you will be earning far more than what you are now. The money was a secondary factor of course, but at the time we never imagined that it would become such a big platform where new players will get chances and they will end up replacing us.”
