The harsh reality of life

Relief, joy and hope shimmered across their faces as a medley of team owners squared up against the media on the opening day of the IPL players' auction here on Saturday.

For Shilpa Shetty, co-owner of Rajasthan Royals, being here was itself reason to celebrate after her team got mired in legal issues in the run-up to the auction.

Hands tied

“The Royals have been through upheavals and we are happy to be here but yes we are in this auction with our hands tied as we had to submit a guarantee of $2 million to the courts and that reduced our budget.

“But we have got Ross Taylor and we are happy,” Shetty said.

Punjab loses regulars

Later Preity Zinta, co-owner of Kings XI Punjab, who lost out on most of her regular players like Mahela Jayawardene and Irfan Pathan, said: “It is an auction and everything is fluid. We lost Yuvraj Singh and others and it is sad because as a team over the years you do form a bond, but I wish them well.”

Zinta also played down the mild debate with the Royal Challengers Bangalore management while making a futile bid for Saurabh Tiwary and said: “All's well that ends well.”

For Chennai Super Kings, the desire to pocket local lads R. Ashwin and S. Badrinath was fulfilled, though the bid to buy Sri Lankan icon Muttiah Muralitharan came unstuck.

“When we saw the intent on the Kochi table, we had to give in,” said Gurunathan, a CSK official.

The last word though has to rest with IPL commissioner Chirayu Amin.

When asked about Sourav Ganguly's failure to trigger a bid, Amin said: “That's the reality of the game and life. It's extremely competitive. It's unfortunate but that's the way it is.”