The mega auction for the 15th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is scheduled to take place on February 12 and February 13, in Bengaluru. In a situation like this, all the teams have done their preparations and planning for the IPL 2022 auction, Things are not much different for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). The Bangalore side have retained three players for the upcoming edition and they are- Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell and Mohammed Siraj.
Hesson speaks
While talking about the mega auction, RCB Director of Cricket Mike Hesson said that the scouting programme is pretty important for the mega auction and he also pointed out the need to check the international schedule in order to know which player will be available for the IPL.
"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. So, 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 said in a video posted on RCB's Twitter.
"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," Hesson further added.
Head coach's words
On the other hand, RCB head coach Sanjay Bangar admitted that the “competition is really tough” and also said that “at times you have to be fortunate with some players that you certainly want.”
"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," said Bangar.
