A total of 590 cricketers will go under the hammer at the auction.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) Director of Cricket, Mike Hesson, has opened up about RCB’s preparation for the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 mega auction to be held on February 12 and 13 in Bengaluru.
Hesson said that the scouting programme for the IPL 2022 mega auction helped the franchise in knowing the players in-depth. The RCB Director of Cricket further said they will pick the overseas players at the auction according to their availabilities for the upcoming IPL 2022.
In a video posted by the RCB on Twitter, Hesson said: “Once the retentions are finished, we find out the remaining purse of all the other teams. It’s a continuation of our scouting programme so, there are a number of domestic tournaments taking place and our scouts are out there, feeding back the information to our coaching team.”
He continued, “So, there were a lot of meetings and discussions, watching videos, reaffirming views. Then we wait for the list to come out in terms of who makes himself available for the IPL, especially from the overseas point of view. Checking the schedule that who is going to be available and for how long and, then how much you can allocate on each role.”
Hesson concluded, “We are going away with the idea of a trial. We are looking for a player for a two-day period. We have an in-depth scouting programme, we get to know the players and a lot about them. We see them at different conditions, at different pressure points. In months, we can develop the roles in which they can play and then we see that those are not already by someone else in RCB.”
Meanwhile, RCB head coach Sanjay Bangar said that the scouting process has changed over the years, competition has gotten really tough and things will change rapidly at the auction.
Bangar said, “Unlike earlier times, not all teams were having those scouts across the country. The competition is really tough. At times you have to be fortunate with some players that you certainly want and there are going to be times that how badly you want a player but you can't buy him at the auction table.”
Notably, RCB retained Virat Kohli, Mohammed Siraj, and Glenn Maxwell ahead of the IPL 2022 auction.
(With ANI Inputs)