DP World ILT 20 auction propels the tournament’s growth

DUBAI: When the fourth edition of the DP World ILT20 kicks off on Dec. 2 in Dubai, there will be a difference in the way that some of the players will have been selected.
This will be by auction in Dubai on Wednesday, Oct. 1.

It is the same method used by the Indian Premier League since its inception in 2008.
Then, the auctioneer was Richard Madley, who conducted a further nine IPL auctions. By quirk of circumstance, it is Madley who will conduct ILT20’s first ever auction.
It was my pleasure to be introduced to him two days prior to the auction to learn more about his experiences, skills and hopes for the ILT20. It seems that he was fated to be and auctioneer.

Both his father and father-in-law were auctioneers, whilst his mother-in-law was an antiques dealer.
He started young in collecting objects and now specializes, among other things, in oriental carpets. His love for cricket began at junior school in Cardiff, Wales, where dreams and ambitions of playing professionally were nurtured.
This has been the case for many other children, who, like Madley, realized that the dreams would never be realized. However, he did represent his native Wales at hockey.
Madley has played club cricket in Surrey and is a qualified umpire, but it is with the gavel in auctioneering that he has made his mark in cricket, acquiring the sobriquet of “Hammerman” in India.
It was there, he says, that he realized that cricket had changed forever when M.S.

Dhoni was bought for $1.5 million in the first IPL auction. Madley likened the event to the Wild West when nobody quite knew what they were doing.
Now, he sees his role as overseeing a fair distribution of players across franchises to achieve a balance between them. He believes that a knowledge