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IPL's Most Valuable Player: Gayle continues to rule the roost

Last updated on: May 15, 2013 14:16 IST
RCB's Chris Gayle
After 42 days and 64 matches, Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji's MVPI formula shows that RCB's Chris Gayle is still the Most Valuable Player in season 6 of the IPL.

Even though RCB's fortunes are declining, Chris Gayle continues (MVP of 821) to be IPL6's most valuable player after 64 matches. However, the big-hitting West Indian faces a stiff challenge from Shane Watson (722) especially if RCB fail to qualify.

The most valuable player index (MVPI) collapses a player's batting, bowling and fielding performances into a one-dimensional 'run equivalent'. For example, Dwayne Bravo's MVPI of 530 indicates that his batting, bowling and fielding performance is equivalent to scoring 530 'runs'. In fact Bravo, who has been taking a lot of wickets, could have been up at the top if he had more batting opportunities.

Recall that 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.

A look at the MVPI list shows the other usual suspects at the top: Shane Watson and Mike Hussey from Australia; Gayle, Narine and Bravo from West Indies; and Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, M S Dhoni and Rohit Sharma from India.

A very poor IPL for Sri Lankans

Last updated on: May 15, 2013 14:16 IST

It has been a very poor IPL for Sri Lankans, with just Thisara Perera in the top ten. Lasith Malinga is doing reasonably well but is not the lethal force he used to be. Mahela Jayawardene is at the 56th place (MVP of 244) and Sangakkara and Dilshan are practically invisible.

The South Africans too have been subdued, although AB de Villiers has had his moments and Dale Steyn remains awesome.

 

Player's Name

Team

From

Run

Strike Rate

W

Eco

M

MVPI

Money Offered (US $)

PVI

1

Chris Gayle

RCB

WI

680

154.5

3

10

15

821

550000

628

2

Shane Watson

RR

AUS

483

150.5

8

6.6

12

722

1300000

1575

3

Virat Kohli

RCB

IND

578

135.0

0

-

15

653

1800000

2584

4

Michael Hussey

CSK

AUS

640

127.7

0

-

14

652

425000

611

5

Suresh Raina

CSK

IND

466

145.2

1

11.5

15

585

1300000

2083

6

MS Dhoni

CSK

IND

374

164.0

0

-

15

544

1800000

3102

7

Rohit Sharma

MI

IND

487

140.3

0

5

14

538

2000000

3253

8

Sunil Narine

KKR

WI

20

117.6

22

5.6

14

536

700000

1143

9

Dwayne Bravo

CSK

WI

95

117.3

24

7.9

15

530

200000

354

10

Thisara Perera

SRH

SL

201

150.0

16

8.2

13

511

675000

1156

11

Jacques Kallis

KKR

SA

286

100.0

15

6.9

14

502

1100000

1917

12

Dinesh Karthik

MI

IND

435

133.4

0

-

14

487

900000

1617

13

Vinay Kumar

RCB

IND

70

159.1

22

8.2

15

476

1000000

1970

14

AB de Villiers

RCB

SA

355

164.4

0

-

13

470

1100000

2194

15

Harbhajan Singh

MI

IND

76

158.3

17

6.5

14

465

1300000

2446

16

David Miller

KXI

SA

368

163.6

0

-

10

460

100000

190

17

Ravindra Jadeja

CSK

IND

194

150.4

10

7.3

15

444

2000000

4223

18

David Warner

DD

AUS

408

128.7

0

-

14

429

750000

1530

19

Dale Steyn

SRH

SA

49

148.5

14

5.7

14

429

1200000

2448

20

Mitchell Johnson

MI

AUS

30

150.0

20

7.2

13

423

300000

621

21

James Faulkner

RR

AUS

28

93.3

19

6.7

12

418

400000

837

22

Kieron Pollard

MI

WI

286

149.0

5

9.6

13

398

900000

1979

23

Ajinkya Rahane

RR

IND

433

111.9

1

-

14

394

44000

98

24

Amit Mishra

SRH

IND

89

92.7

17

7

14

384

300000

684

25

Stuart Binny

RR

IND

219

157.6

5

6.5

13

376

66000

154

26

Robin Uthappa

PWI

IND

385

116.7

0

-

14

366

2100000

5020

27

Gautam Gambhir

KKR

IND

384

124.3

0

-

14

364

2400000

5769

28

Aaron Finch

PWI

AUS

356

131.9

1

12.3

12

359

300000

731

29

R Ashwin

CSK

IND

26

83.9

15

6.5

15

353

850000

2257

30

Rahul Dravid

RR

IND

387

110.9

0

-

14

345

500000

1268

31

Mohit Sharma

CSK

IND

0

0.0

16

6

12

342

22000

60

32

Eoin Morgan

KKR

ENG

298

129.0

0

-

13

328

350000

934

33

Azhar Mahmood

KXI

PAK

107

110.3

13

7.4

9

317

200000

552

34

Yuvraj Singh

PWI

IND

205

125.8

6

6.5

11

317

1800000

4968

35

Sachin Tendulkar

MI

IND

287

124.2

0

-

14

298

1800000

5285

36

Lasith Malinga

MI

SL

7

58.3

13

6.3

12

293

500000

1493

37

Pragyan Ojha

MI

IND

1

100.0

14

6.8

12

290

500000

1509

38

Adam Gilchrist

KXI

AUS

247

126.0

0

-

11

285

900000

2763

39

Rajat Bhatia

KKR

IND

89

125.4

11

7.5

14

280

66000

206

40

Ravi Rampaul

RCB

IND

38

102.7

12

6.8

9

279

290000

974

41

Yusuf Pathan

KKR

IND

211

126.3

1

8.8

14

279

2100000

6586

42

Umesh Yadav

DD

IND

30

103.4

15

8.4

14

278

750000

2361

43

B Kumar

PWI

IND

52

73.2

12

6.6

14

278

44000

138

44

Ishant Sharma

SRH

IND

0

-

14

7.8

14

272

450000

1448

45

Praveen Kumar

KXI

IND

47

123.7

10

6.9

13

271

800000

2583

46

Irfan Pathan

DD

IND

117

100.0

8

7.4

13

265

1900000

6274

47

Manvinder Bisla

KKR

IND

239

111.7

0

-

12

265

66000

218

48

Kevon Cooper

RR

WI

2

50.0

16

8.3

10

261

50000

168

49

Moises Henriques

RCB

AUS

153

125.4

7

8.7

9

260

300000

1082

50

Mandeep Singh

KXI

IND

259

118.8

0

-

14

259

22000

74

51

Parthiv Patel

SRH

IND

244

116.7

0

-

10

257

650000

2213

52

Sanju Samson

RR

IND

187

129.9

0

-

7

254

22000

76

53

Mitchell Marsh

PWI

AUS

140

132.1

7

9.4

9

251

290000

1011

54

Dwayne Smith

MI

WI

284

107.2

2

11.8

10

248

100000

353

55

Virender Sehwag

DD

IND

254

126.4

0

9

11

247

1800000

6377

56

M Jayawardene

DD

SL

278

107.8

0

-

13

244

1400000

5020

56

Jaydev Unadkat

RCB

IND

2

100.0

13

7.5

12

239

525000

2059

57

Shikhar Dhawan

SRH

IND

235

133.5

0

-

7

239

300000

1098

58

RP Singh

RCB

IND

0

-

13

8.1

10

235

400000

1596

Foreign players offer higher value than Indian players

Last updated on: May 15, 2013 14:16 IST
David Miller

We also define a second index with a rather colourful name: 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.

The PVI column (last column of table) highlights something that we already know ... that foreign players, who can be bought cheaper, offer significantly higher value than Indian players.

Look at Miller, Smith, Bravo, Johnson, Finch, Faulkner, Morgan and others (we're sure that Gayle's actual price is much higher than $550,000!), and contrast that with how expensive Sehwag, Uthappa, Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh and the Pathan brothers have proved to be this year (again, Sachin Tendulkar's ability to bring in crowds and TV viewership puts him in a different class).

We hear that there might be a tenth IPL team in 2014. This will skew the India-foreign player price ratio further ... because there will be even greater demand for the 20-25 top Indian players and that will push their prices further up.

We do think it is time to allow 5 foreign players in the playing eleven ... perhaps by reviving the concept of substitute players.