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Gayle continues to be the Most Valuable Player in IPL 6

Last updated on: May 26, 2013 16:11 IST

Gayle’s sixes got bigger, Watson played with a passion for Rajasthan Royals that is harder to spot when he plays for Australia, Mike Hussey made you wonder why he retired so soon, James Faulkner gave indications that he might seriously trouble England in the Ashes series, and Dwayne Bravo left you wondering if he bowls better than he bats, observes Purnendu Maji and Srinivas Bhogle.

It has been a long and bittersweet IPL6. Most of us are probably happy that it is ending. 

Chris GayleIt is sad that the towel in Sreesanth’s pocket might be IPL6’s most lingering memory. But there were some outstanding cricketing performances too. Gayle’s sixes got bigger, Watson played with a passion for Rajasthan Royals that is harder to spot when he plays for Australia, Mike Hussey made you wonder why he retired so soon, James Faulkner gave indications that he might seriously trouble England in the Ashes series, and Dwayne Bravo left you wondering if he bowls better than he bats.

Virat Kohli showed that he has mastered practically every batting skill, although he still has to learn that captaincy is more than just gritting your teeth and scowling continually through a stubble. And Harbhajan Singh showed that he still retains his bowling skills especially when his former mate Anil Kumble eggs him on.

Sadly, there were also some unhappy pointers: Sehwag lost his confidence, and his strike rate, Yuvraj Singh lost his motivation, Lasith Malinga lost his lethal yorker, Mahela Jayawardene lost his resolve, and Kumar Sangakkara seemed to lose all interest.

The table below shows IPL6’s fifty most valuable players based on the MVPI. The most valuable player index (MVPI) collapses a player’s batting, bowling and fielding performances into a one-dimensional ‘run equivalent’. The best MVPI scores are obtained if a player scores a lot of runs at a high strike rate, takes a lot of wickets at a low economy rate or is responsible for the most number of catches and stumpings. The higher the MVPI, the better is the player’s performance.

 

  Player's Name Team From Runs S/R W Eco M MVPI Offered (US $) PVI
1 Chris Gayle RCB WI 708 156.3 3 10 16 864 550000 637
2 Shane Watson RR AUS 543 142.9 13 7.2 16 851 1300000 1528
3 Michael Hussey CSK AUS 732 129.8 0 - 16 764 425000 556
4 Virat Kohli RCB IND 634 138.7 0 - 16 727 1800000 2476
5 Suresh Raina CSK IND 548 150.5 1 11.5 17 700 1300000 1857
6 Dwayne Bravo CSK WI 106 117.8 28 7.8 17 617 200000 324
7 James Faulkner RR AUS 57 100.0 28 6.8 16 613 400000 653
8 Thisara Perera SRH SL 233 142.9 19 8 16 604 675000 1118
9 Harbhajan Singh MI IND 102 143.7 22 6.6 18 591 1300000 2200
10 MS Dhoni CSK IND 398 167.2 0 - 17 579 1800000 3109
11 Rohit Sharma MI IND 536 132.7 0 4.5 18 570 2000000 3509
12 Sunil Narine KKR WI 21 110.5 22 5.5 16 563 700000 1243
13 Dale Steyn SRH SA 53 147.2 19 5.7 17 549 1200000 2186
14 Kieron Pollard MI WI 360 144.6 9 9.6 17 534 900000 1685
15 David Miller KXI AUS 418 164.6 0 - 12 529 100000 189
16 Dinesh Karthik MI IND 489 127.0 0 - 18 529 900000 1701
17 Jacques Kallis KKR SA 311 96.6 16 7.4 16 507 1100000 2170
18 Ravindra Jadeja CSK IND 201 151.1 13 7.4 17 506 2000000 3953
19 Amit Mishra SRH IND 89 92.7 21 6.4 17 504 300000 595
20 Vinay Kumar RCB IND 70 159.1 23 8.2 16 494 1000000 2024
21 AB de Villiers RCB SA 360 164.4 0 - 14 476 1100000 2311
22 Aaron Finch PWI AUS 456 135.7 1 12.3 14 471 300000 637
23 Stuart Binny RR IND 293 147.2 6 6.8 17 464 66000 142
24 Mitchell Johnson MI AUS 38 111.8 22 7.3 16 455 300000 659
25 Azhar Mahmood KXI ENG 196 127.3 15 7.5 11 451 200000 443
26 David Warner DD AUS 410 126.9 0 - 16 429 750000 1748
27 Yusuf Pathan KKR IND 332 138.3 1 8.1 16 427 2100000 4918
28 Robin Uthappa PWI IND 434 117.0 0 - 16 426 2100000 4930
29 Ajinkya Rahane RR IND 488 106.6 1 - 18 425 44000 104
30 Dwayne Smith MI WI 414 122.8 2 11.8 12 420 100000 238
31 Rahul Dravid RR IND 471 110.8 0 - 18 411 500000 1217
32 Kevon Cooper RR WI 39 177.3 19 8.3 14 406 50000 123
33 Mohit Sharma CSK IND 0 0.0 19 6.4 14 381 22000 58
34 Adam Gilchrist KXI AUS 294 128.4 1 0 13 364 900000 2473
35 Gautam Gambhir KKR IND 406 118.4 0 - 16 363 2400000 6612
36 R Ashwin CSK IND 26 83.9 15 6.7 17 347 850000 2450
37 Yuvraj Singh PWI IND 238 125.3 6 6.9 13 347 1800000 5187
38 Lasith Malinga MI SL 9 56.3 18 7.3 16 341 500000 1466
39 Brad Hodge RR AUS 293 134.4 0 3 17 340 475000 1397
40 Darren Sammy SRH WI 174 131.8 8 7.5 10 339 425000 1254
41 Eoin Morgan KKR ENG 307 127.9 0 - 14 334 350000 1048
42 Praveen Kumar KXI IND 47 120.5 12 6.6 15 324 800000 2469
43 Irfan Pathan DD IND 142 93.4 10 7.4 15 310 1900000 6129
44 Bhuvneshwar Kumar PWI IND 52 73.2 13 6.5 16 310 44000 142
45 Parthiv Patel SRH IND 294 115.3 0 - 13 304 650000 2138
46 Virender Sehwag DD IND 295 126.6 0 9 13 298 1800000 6040
47 Sachin Tendulkar MI IND 287 124.2 0 - 14 298 1800000 6040
48 Shikhar Dhawan SRH IND 311 122.9 0 - 10 297 300000 1010
49 Pragyan Ojha MI IND 1 33.3 15 7.3 15 296 500000 1689
50 Karan Sharma SRH IND 85 98.8 11 6.6 13 296 44000 149


We can also define a second index: paisa vasool index (PVI). To obtain a player’s PVI we divide his total money offered by his MVPI. So the PVI estimates how many dollars the franchise owner pays the player for every ‘run’ scored. The lower the PVI, the greater the value offered by the player. 

Notice that most top Indian players have high PVI values. There’s a story there, and a worrying one. Established Indian players get paid way too much because of the requirement of 7 Indians in the playing eleven, and uncapped Indians get paid way too little because of the silly rule that they can’t make it to the auction.

If we drop this rule, allow 5 non-Indians in the playing eleven, and legalize betting, IPL could still continue to be one of cricket’s favourite and wondrous things.

Photograph: BCCI

Purnendu Maji and Srinivas Bhogle