The 2016 IPL auctions were much tempered, as owners decided to bet on uncapped players, instead of splurging on star cricketers, reflecting a more cautious approach when it comes to buying star players going forward.

Collective gasps, cheering and a sense of euphoria were not in abundance. Not to mention the money — which was there but somehow, did not find its way out of the IPL owner’s wallets in the past several editions, especially when it came to buying star cricketers. Yuvraj Singh was a classic case in point. Bought for whopping ₹16 crore during the previous auction by the Delhi team, he was sold this time for ₹7 crore.

Yuvraj is not the only case in point. The maximum any franchise was willing to pay was ₹9.5 crore (Shane Watson), almost 60 per cent less when compared to the last auction. While the overall numbers continued to be robust, with ₹136 crore spent, compared to ₹88 crore in the 2015 auction, there was a shift in the way the money was spent.

In this auction, the trend was to go for home-grown uncapped players who have the potential to match, according to Rajeev Shukla, Chairman, IPL. A case in point — Delhi Daredevils – splashed ₹17 crore to buy 10 uncapped players, out of which almost half of the amount was used to buy Pawan Negi.

Franchises, this season, seem to have pursued a strategy of unearthing talent from within the country more intently. According to Nita Ambani, owner of Mumbai Indians, the search for talent has been on for the last 7 months despite winning in 2015. “We felt that KP Kamath being a leg-spinner and Krunal Pandya being a left hand spinner and batsman made sense for us,” added Akash Ambani, owner, Mumbai Indians. Both of them were bought for ₹3.4 crore.

Of the ₹61.7 crore, spent on the top 10 players this time, 3 of them are uncapped. In 2015, there were none.

T Shekhar, manager of Delhi Daredevils, says, “Franchises have become smart and are figuring out the best value for money.” Industry watchers opine that this model is similar to that of European football clubs.

For example, FC Barcelona, Manchester United, Real Madrid and others have talent scouts who go around the world to pick up players at a very early stage and are then groomed in their youth academy.

These players then go on to play for the main clubs. Lionel Messi is one such example.

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