Before uncapped Indian players earned millions at IPL auctions, a few were picked out of the dark, shone for a little while, but disappeared quickly.
New Delhi: Last week, after the auction for the 2019 edition of the Indian Premier League in Jaipur, a large number of cricket fans were left scratching their heads. Names like Varun Chakravarthy (Rs 8.4 crore to Kings XI Punjab), Shivam Dube (Rs 5 crore to Royal Challengers Bangalore), Prabhsimran Singh (Rs 4.8 crore to KXIP) and 15-year-old Prayas Ray Barman (Rs 1.5 crore to RCB) — which very few had heard of — raked in the moolah, because franchises who had scouted them and saw something special kept raising the stakes.
It wasn’t always this way, because for the first few years of the league’s existence, uncapped Indian players weren’t part of the auction. They were signed up on the basis of their domestic performances, paid a relatively small amount of money, but given the big stage to perform.
This is the story of five of them, who were plucked from obscurity, shone bright for a moment, but turned out to be a mere flash in the pan.
Swapnil Asnodkar
Asnodkar paid the price for representing his home state of Goa in domestic cricket, since it has always been a weak time. But he was picked up by the Royals in the first season, and was a key part of their unexpected march to the title.
In his very first game, Asnodkar impressed by scoring 60 runs off just 34 balls against KKR. Overall, that season, he scored 311 runs in just nine innings. As a result of his diminutive stature and performance, he even earned the nickname of ‘Pocket Dynamite’.
However, the bouncier pitches in the second IPL in South Africa got the best of him, and despite churning out runs for Goa until the 2017-18 season, he faded away from public memory.
Kamran Khan
Born in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Khan came from a woodcutter’s family, but impressed Rajasthan Royals’ coach Darren Berry during a suburban tournament in Mumbai. In 2009, the Royals took him to South Africa for the second IPL, on a contract worth $24,000, despite zero first-class or List A experience.
According to a report in The Indian Express, he wasn’t able to sleep at five-star hotels because he was used to sleeping on railway platforms.
Khan played eight matches over two seasons for the Royals, grabbing nine wickets at an economy rate of 7.47. However, his slingy bowling action was called for chucking.
Returning after correcting his action in 2011, Khan played just one match for Pune Warriors. But that was the end of his career, and he went on to become a wheat farmer.
Khan’s captain at the Royals, Australian legend Shane Warne, who had backed him to the hilt, tweeted about him:
Found it bizarre that Kamran is working on a farm and not playing IPL.
To me a waste of talent, hope your ok buddy.. http://t.co/i4tZATV5
— Shane Warne (@ShaneWarne) May 7, 2012
Also read: Has IPL cricket become a target for political activism?
Paul Valthaty
Mumbai-born Paul Chandrashekhar Valthaty created a name for himself by smashing 120 runs while playing for KXIP against Chennai Super Kings in April 2011 — the highest individual score that season.
He had been part of the Indian Under-19 World Cup team in 2002, but an eye injury sustained while playing against Bangladesh halted the development of his career.
He only resurfaced in 2009, when he was picked up by the Royals, who gave him a couple of matches, leading to a chance for Mumbai’s domestic T20 side.
KXIP picked him up in 2011, and he repaid the faith by scoring 463 runs in 14 innings with a strike rate of 136.98. However, in the next two seasons, he did nothing of note, and faded away from top-level domestic cricket.
Afterwards, Valthaty played for Air India, and in March 2018, was acquired by Mumbai South Central in the fledgling T20 Mumbai League for Rs 50,000.
Manvinder Bisla
Bisla, a wicketkeeper-batsman hailing from Hisar, Haryana, made his IPL debut in 2009 for Deccan Chargers. In 2010, he played for Kings XI Punjab, before going on to play for Kolkata Knight Riders from 2011-14.
A batchmate of Valthaty in the under-19 set-up, Bisla was a journeyman first-class cricketer who did nothing of note in the IPL either — until his match-winning 89 off 48 balls helped KKR beat CSK in the 2012 final.
The following season, Bisla was back to being anonymous, so much so that KKR played him in just one match the season after — 2014. He was picked up by RCB in 2015, but played just two matches, before being unsold in 2016 and 2017.
Pravin Tambe
Tambe was serving as a liaison manager at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai when he was picked up by the Royals at the age of 41 in the 2013 season. A club cricketer, he had not played a first-class, List A or domestic T20 game before making his IPL debut.
His brightest moment came in the now-defunct Champions League T20, when he topped the wickets tally with 12 at an economy rate of 6.5.
In 2014, Tambe became the second bowler in T20 cricket after Sri Lankan Isuru Udana to achieve a hat-trick in two legal deliveries. In 2017, Tambe was sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs 10 lakhs.
His exploits for the Royals led to a long-awaited Ranji debut, though Tambe never came near the national side.